First Buses - Get a car! (First Group Buses)

Member Name: McBeer

Product:	First Group Buses
Date:	18/05/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap sunday tickets

Disadvantages: Many including late, prices, rude drivers, unsuitable buses

I am a regular user of first buses, as they are the only bus service to my local town for work. There buses come once an hour on weekdays and saturdays and every 2 hours on sundays.

I am luckily enough to live opposite a bus stop, therefore am able to see how the buses are running on a daily basis.

Rarely do I get a bus to work on a weekday where it arrives on time. As the buses arrive around the half past the hour mark, and take around 25mins to get into town, it doesnt leave much time for anyone to get to work starting on the hour. This is especially a problem when a bus is running late, which seems to be most cases.

Being lucky to live so close to the bus stop, I can go over last minute when I see people waiting, however I still find many problems. I have been caught out by some buses being from 5 to 10 minutes early and therefore missing the bus. If a bus is late, you may get in a few minutes late, however if it is early, theres an hour wait. This is not something that any company someone may work for will be pleased about. I have even had to work extra hours for times buses have not turned up at all and been completely cut out. On one situation, it was a sunday night with buses running every 2 hours. Everything was shut as it was half 8 at night. From my window, I was about to leave the house to get into town to a friend which was important, and as I was leaving my door 10 minutes early so I knew I wouldnt miss the bus at all, the bus drove past me without even stopping. Not only was it 10 minutes early, it also meant the next bus was to be in 2 hours time at half 10 at night. For anyone who doesnt live locally or may be stranded, they would have to wait in the dark that night, in the rain and cold with nothing open for two hours. I thought this was completely unacceptable.

On a different situation, a friend of mine was rejected on the bus as they only had a ten pound note. The Bus fair was only just under £5 so I feel it shouldnt have been a problem. We were told to go and get change, but that would mean we would have to wait an hour for the next bus. I reported this to the bus station, along with many other complaints, and they agreed it was unacceptable, but nothing was followed through.

During the summer months and half terms with school and college kids off, the buses do get even worse. On a regular basis during the week, they were between 15 and 45 minutes late. I would infact have to get the bus an hour early just to be in time for work.

As well as this, a regular bus that is used on this route, the upstairs only has half seats with cushions. The back half of the bus has just plastic seats, with a lot of the seats falling apart.

Despite all of these problems, there still are some pleasant drivers among the worst of them, but I feel the prices are now getting rediculous, especially being governments are encouraging public transport. The return trip journey I take, being 25mins long, now means I have to work an hour before actually earning money because of the price of the trip. I have npw resorted to getting monthly bus passes, but these still work out very expensive.

The one positive thing about the bus service however is the ticket avaliable for a sunday service. This is a sunday saver, which means it can be used as many times as you wish during that day in your local area. It is also at a good discounted price. However, as much as it can be used, its useless to try and get connections with the buses running every 2 hours.

More money is going towards public transport, but they only seem to be getting worse.

Summary: I believe to be an appauling service from such a professional company