Nope, that's pretty silly BS. Apparently Melbourne had some really stupid "efficiency motivators" that made train operators do this, but that's stupid. The transit company/authority/whatever that's in charge knows that the blow back for being late is nothing compared to refusing to let people disembark where they want to, it's also a _bit_ of a sunk cost. When you let someone board you're accepting the time for them to embark and disembark (you need to let them off sometime)... as a driver you would save a bit of time by not pulling into the stop.

Anyways, with downtown buses I'll often do this voluntarily, if the bus is full I'll wait until the stop after mine to pull the cord, and disembark at my stop or one before if someone else is getting off - a block or two of walking isn't going to hurt anyone.