Bus fiasco

We arrived on Tuesday night so yesterday morning we went into Albufeira to do our initial shop at Pingo Doce.
Although it was raining the bus into Albufeira was only about 5 minutes late arriving at Modelo.
However, the trip back to Acoteias was painful to say the least.
The bus was late - should have been at Modelo at 11.10. It usually arrives between 11.15 & 11.20  but yesterday it didn't arrive until 11.40 - 30 minutes late and from there on, it got worse.
The bus was completely empty when it arrived at Modelo.
Mrs Dicey, myself & one other person got on.
However, 20 others tried to get on until they found out it was not the bus they wanted.
Because of the weather it seems that the whole World & his brother had decided to go to Quarteira market for the day so every bus stop between Modelo & Acoteias had a queue of people looking for a bus going to Quarteira.
And because of totally inadequate signage on the front of the bus, and a total lack of bus route information at bus stops, the driver was flagged down at every stop.
The first in the queue at each stop put one foot on the steps & asked "does this bus go to Quarteira"
"No" replied the driver, "you need the Faro bus".
This was repeated at 9 different bus stops and not one single person got on, or off, our bus.
As a consequence our journey took 25 minutes longer than normal (i.e. a total of 40 minutes for a journey that takes no more than 15 minutes)
This constant stopping & starting for no reason must be costing EVA a small fortune & having serious effects on the remainder of their schedule for the day.
Don't understand, other than "this is Portugal", why they can't have a numbering system for buses coupled with simple route information for each number at all bus stops. After all, there are only 2 bus routes (to Acoteias & to Faro) that go along this road so it wouldn't be that difficult to do.

BTW, despite the appearance of Albufeira Sightseeing bus stops at numerous locations between Falesia & Albufeira earlier this year, not one Sightseeing bus has thus far been spotted on this route.

Well said David!

We rarely use the bus, but had cause to do so in the summer when we went to meet friends for drinks at Vilamoura. It too was running late, and as it was the 13.30ish service there is another bus within 6 minutes that takes a similar, but slightly different route. Both just have "Faro" on the front. We happily boarded and while on route a German man flagged it down at the stop near Coyote bar. "Are you going to ... (I cannot remember exactly where he said)" he asked. "No you need that bus there" he was told, as the one he needed sped past.

He said a rather rude word that even my limited German was enough to understand.       

this might sound silly , but we like to use the bus timetables , when you see the - does this mean same time every hour or does it mean no bus , sorry for being a bit thick