First Buses - Rant!

kimbyanne

I need to have a rant about First Buses.

Does anyone else have this much trouble with buses being late or not arriving or do the buses have it out for me!?

I catch the bus to and from work, five days a week. I pay about £60 a month for this. However, I am getting really fed up with the service First provide, or lack thereof.

For my £60 I simply expect buses to turn up/depart at or around the time they are meant to. I understand things like breakdowns, traffic, etc causes delays and I am accepting of the fact that there will be occasions when I am left waiting longer than I would prefer.

HOWEVER, what is not acceptable is buses not turning at up all or arriving/departing at random times/not as per the timetable on a frequent basis!

For example, this morning I was waiting for a bus for 45 minutes because neither of the buses I catch turned up. Last night, the bus I catch home departed 10 minutes early, meaning I had to wait half an hour for the next one which was delayed due to "heavy rain". Last Friday, my bus home didn't turn up at all meaning another half an hour wait for the later one.

Its not just a occasional thing, I would imagine out of my ten bus trips per week, 75% of those either do not arrive or arrive over 15 minutes late.

If I complain to First their go to excuse is the bus broke down (it would seem their buses breakdown ALOT) and of course, I cannot prove that it didn't.

Rant over....

RosiPossum

In Glasgow apparently there are lots of excuses they can give for lateness or cancelled, but leaving a stop early is a big no no!

yangptangkipperbang

kimbyanne wrote: »

Last night, the bus I catch home departed 10 minutes early, meaning I had to wait half an hour for the next one which was delayed due to "heavy rain".

How do you know it was 10 minutes early ? There might have been a traffic problem which caused the earlier service to be 20 mins late - and the one you got was "yours" but 30 mins late..........

It is a bit like having an hourly service, and if they are all running an hour late then you have a"normal" service :D

kimbyanne wrote: »

If I complain to First their go to excuse is the bus broke down (it would seem their buses breakdown ALOT) and of course, I cannot prove that it didn't.

I did pass a "dead" First bus only last night - the mechanic was struggling to replace a huge broken toothed belt

FrillyTilly

All the time where I live, they are a nightmare company! I once waited over an hour for a bus to get me to my hospital appointment, six (yes six!) buses were missing!

Buzby

Complain to the Traffic Commissioners for the area concerned. They require published timetables to be kept and here in Glasgow, my FB services are excellent, along with real time status on certain routes.

pmduk

They're poor in this area as well. Fortunately Stagecoach have launched a competing service recently, and for only the second time in 12 years, First have had timekeepers in this area checking how buses are running. They got fined £285,000 for poor timekeeping a couple of years ago. Probably about time they got another fine.

Traffic commissioners can impose fines of up to £350 per vehicles for companies that fail to achieve 95% punctuality. NB This was in an English newspaper, things may be different in Scotland.

Ronaldo_Mconaldo

I remember about 8 years ago I had to catch two buses to get to work and then 2 tomget home again, this is before I got my first car. It was horrendous, if the buses turned up on time then it would take hours to get home. Most times they disn't turn up on time though, usually it was a Thursday, it would turn out that the bus broke down. So annoying. Driving your own car has so many advantages over buses, just dump public transport, leave it to the chumps.

globetraveller

I can think of a far better definition for chump

paddyrg

If you have a smartphone, they have an app which sometimes gives you a countdown on how far away the next bus it for your stop, so at least you're not standing like a lemon

RosiPossum

The bus stops in Glasgow used to tell give you realtime countdowns, however they were just showing what the timetable said. It would just say "due" when the 66 was supposed to arrive and it came 5 minutes later.

kathrynha

I gave up on first Leeds because they were so unreliable. I save over an hour a day and about £30 a month by using my car for work.

The real time displays in bus shelters are worse than useless too.
Normal display was:
3mins
2mins
1min
due
10mins
with no bus having turned up.

As for complaining to first, it is a waste of time. If you complained that a bus didn't turn up, they would tell you it did, and you must of missed it. Excuse me, but if I have been stood at a bus stop from almost 10 mins before the bus was due till a few buses due later one bothers to turn up, I think I would of noticed a bus going past.

They also used to blame the first bus of the day not showing up on traffic. It was due at 6.30am, there is never much traffic at that time!