bus company complaint

Lum

And the government wonder why so many people refuse to use public transport and prefer to use their own cars.

Your ability to get to work and earn a living is at the mercy of whether some manager thinks your route is profitable or not. It's just not safe.

Only suggestion I can make, suck it up and buy a car or a bike. Either that or change jobs so that you work in the nearest city centre.

photome

whatmichaelsays wrote: »

Maybe so, but there are ways of doing it.

Constantly going to the local council / PTA and trying to bend them over a barrel by claiming "we don't want to run this service, either you subsidise it or we'll cut it" isn't, in my view, the way to go about things.

What do you suggest they do if a route isnt making money?
Bus companys are a business just like any other, yes I know there are guidelines but as long as they follow those guidelines they can run whatever route they choose.

photome

Lum wrote: »

And the government wonder why so many people refuse to use public transport and prefer to use their own cars.

Your ability to get to work and earn a living is at the mercy of whether some manager thinks your route is profitable or not. It's just not safe.

Only suggestion I can make, suck it up and buy a car or a bike. Either that or change jobs so that you work in the nearest city centre.

It was the government back in the 80/90s that sold all bus companys off to various management teams and then First bus and Stagecoach took almost all management teams over making them a huge profit on their 10p shares with no regard to providing a decent service, as I have said they are now a business that has to make money for their shareholders

KTM_Gordo

As has been said, bus companies are commercial businesses and cannot afford to run routes at a loss. Generally routes are withdrawn because there's insufficient demand from the travelling public.

If there is a social need for a route, which is often the case in rural areas and urban evening and weekend services, then the local council may decided to subsidise it. The operators will put in a tender and as usual the lowest bidder wins.

On the whole bus services have improved since deregulation, with more frequent services, often with smaller vehicles, on more direct routes.

DaveF327

Isn't it about time buses and railways were nationalised again? Margaret Thatcher's government has a lot to answer for. :mad:

Jeff_Bridges_hair

DaveF327 wrote: »

Isn't it about time buses and railways were nationalised again? Margaret Thatcher's government has a lot to answer for. :mad:

On the railway side - they had no investment and had to start hiking up fares above what they are now and nowadays with the competition they are offering bargain bucket fares for travel if you stick to it.

The railways of BR days sucked money out with not a lot in.

The bad thing about privitisation is that it lost engineers who knew the business.,

Any other ill informed rant??

boniespook_2

oops - hit a few raw nerves, glad we are not the only ones!! We've been in touch with the community council, they are already lodging complaints about the service to our area and are looking for feedback on these latest service changes.

They did give the correct notice, there were a few bits in the paper about possible frequency changes and they were changing the route but we didn't know about the details until the timetable was produced. Luckily his boss is OK about him starting 10 minutes late one week and 10 minutes early the next to make up his time. Only problem is now the buses are packed so hopefully they won't go flying past him again like they used to a couple of years ago when there were major problems with the roadworks!!! We can't afford driving lessons or another car (I work unsociable hours) and he feels safer walking than biking across the busy roundabouts and industrial estate.

Yes it is firstbus, the thing that sticks in our throats is that firstbus was originally the aberdeen corporation bought out by the bus drivers 'for aberdeen'. Changed days now! Up here there is so little competition we are at their mercy.

thank you for all the replies

Tracey