First Bus Bristol – The final final final straw

In Bristol, the main bus operator is First Bristol Limited. Travelling by First Bus is pretty stressful. The buses are unreliable, sometimes dirty – think used tampon on back seat on early morning service. Some of the drivers are lovely. But there are some, as with all lines of work, who are best suited to working in a job that doesn’t require talking to anybody.

Today is the final straw. On the number 1 service from Broomhill to Cribbs Causeway I put my hand out to stop the bus at Wyndham Crescent at 9.43am. The bus was on time, in service and had people already on it. The bus driver did not stop. If the driver did not see my arm out for the bus, they must suffer a vision problem which should stop them driving buses.

Livid was an understatement. This was the final final final straw. I phoned up the First number on the timetable to complain. About five times I dialled but was disconnected each time due to a ‘high volume of calls’. Perhaps they were coming from all the other people waiting for the same bus.

The bus fair today cost me £7.60 for myself and five year old. Rip. Off.

But on the 15 October 2012, I hit the first final straw then. So fed up was I at the really bad bus service, I emailed a complaint to the bus company through their contact form. So far there has been no reply.

The email confirmation of receipt is below – some personal details have been removed.

 

contactwestofengland@firstgroup.com (contactwestofengland@firstgroup.com) 15/10/2012
To: xxxxxxx

Thank you for contacting us. One of our Customer Care Team will respond to you soon.

CONTACT US
 
Local Operator: Bristol, Bath and the West
 
Name:           Miss Jen Smith
 
Address:        xxxxxxxx
 
Email:          xxxxxxx
 
Specific Bus:   yes
Route Number:   1
To:             Broomhill
Boarded:        Winchester Road
Travel Date:    Every day
Journey Time:   From 8.15am
 
 
Message:

Dear Sir or Madam,
I am emailing you because I have had enough now.

This morning, I waited around 45 minutes for a number one bus between The Paintworks and Broomhill.

But this isn’t the first time. Or the second time. Or even the third time.

The number one bus is consistently bad. Waiting around 40 minutes for one to turn up in either direction has been going on a while.

The level of the number one’s badness comes in cycles. It gets worse and worse and worse. and then suddenly, it’s OK again for a couple of months. At the moment, it is in its extremely bad section of the cycle.

It costs a fortune to travel by bus in Bristol. Since the three stop hops have been stopped, the best way to pay for bus travel in my circumstances is an adult and child day rider totalling £7.60 per day. I can hardly believe this amount of money, so I have to repeat it until it sinks in. A total of £7.60 per day for one adult and one five-year-old.

The reason I take the bus is because in between the Paintworks and Broomhill, there is this thing called Allison Road. It’s a bit of a gradient for younger children to manage twice a day.

I have looked into getting season tickets for adults and children, but quite frankly, the amount a child week ticket costs is ri.dic.u.lous.

On October 11 this year, I received a letter from my child’s school – xxxxxxxxxxx explaining the impact of my child regularly being around 15 minutes late.

Statistically, each year, my child is missing around two weeks of education because I am waiting for buses that never turn up. It’s not fair on my child and it’s not fair on me paying through the nose for this ridiculous service.

I am regularly around 15 minutes late to school. Why should this happen if I am at the bus stop by 8.20am? And even if the 8.25am bus was really early, I would see it drive past on my way to the bus stop.

I never take my frustration of waiting out on the bus driver. It’s obviously not their fault.

This morning I questioned the driver who arrived on the scene first. He explained to me he had had difficulty with road works in Henleaze. Absolutely fair enough. But this doesn’t explain what happened to the bus at 8.25am or 8.40 ish, the two suspects who always go AWOL.

Is there some kind of worm hole in Arnos Vale that I am unaware of? A gap in the Space Time Contiuum perhaps?

This morning, the bus driver who finally arrived at 9.00am was friendly, polite and really lovely. I have seen him on this service a few times and he is brilliant – Driver xxxxxx

So, please can you provide me with some further details and explanations so I can photocopy them and send off to the Education Welfare Officer who I am sure will be notified should my children’s lateness continue.
Yours faithfully,

 

So this section on the Chopsy Baby website, is to keep a log of the worst of First.