What is it about Stagecoach? (Stagecoach)

Member Name: MichaelR

Product:	Stagecoach
Date:	27/01/01 (62 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Never on time. Extortionate fares

Disadvantages: The only people who can get you where you want to go

That makes them want to mess up every company that they acquire and add to their ever-expanding empire?

In the summer, I live in Exeter in Devon (where I originally hail from) and I have to say that Stagecoah Devon services, both on City and rural routes are absolutely abysmal.

I don't know why they even bother to publish timetables, because they certainly don't stick to them.

The prices continue to increase, to quite extortionate levels, but the sevice stays at a very low level.

They can get away with this, because in many cases (it's the case in Devon anyway) there is no alternative to Stagecoach. They simply move in and acquire every operator within the area, and if somebody goes up against them, they simply force the independent operator out of business by temporarily increasing the frequency of their services until the independent is in such a bad financial state that they have no choice but to sell.

Stagecoach driver are also often rude to both passengers and other motorists, and some show very poor standards of driving.

The final thing that I want to mention about Stagecoach is their insistance on using buses that do not meet the capacity required on high demand routes at peak times.

They refuse to use anything bigger than a Mercedes minibus within Exeter, a bus which is way too small for the City routes at peak times. It gets to the point sometimes where passengers are left waiting for ages because buses are passing by filled to capacity (including standing room)

They should take a leaf out of the book of companies like Strathtay and Travel Dundee (the two main operators where I live for most of the rest of the year) who offer cheap fares, and buses suited to the routes, i.e. small buses on low demand routes, larger buses on higher demand routes.

It is very significant that it is Strathtay and not Stagecoach who get the bulk of the customers on the Dundee to Perth ro
ute....

I very much doubt that Stagecoach will improve. It doesn't have to. The fact that almost every company in the UK is now controlled by either Stagecoach or First means that there is little to no competition for either group within the areas they control.

Who needs to worry about service when you have a monopoly eh??

Summary: