Worst bus operator in the UK

[LE Greys]

Not sure if they've come up yet, but Arriva the Shires have been getting in my wick recently. First, they changed their timetable without any prior warning. It was a nice 20-minute even-interval service, now it goes 20-20-30-20-20-30 or something similar throughout the day. Not that they ever keep to it, either. They also caught out a friend of mine by no longer running down a section of the Great North Road between the Lister Hospital and Stevenage Old Town. Diverted via the dual carriageway because of cars constantly being parked in the way (not their fault, to be fair, and my suggestion of adding bull-bars was turned down ) and only telling people by using a tiny little card in the timetable window. She turned up at the stop and waited there for about an hour before someone noticed (it was her, an old lady and a mother with a pram)! There's also the shelter in the Old Town where the only opaque window is the one you have to look through to see if anything is coming, so you can't sit down. No PIS boards, of course, but they do have a mobile app, which is very useful to my old mother who can't read the screen :roll: . AAAGH! :-x

Rant over, sorry.

 

[34D]

It's not so bad for single decks - I only have to know eight routes (previously nine). The guys on the deckers at my depot have to know sixteen routes, plus the eight that I have, which they won't drive very often.

Any reason for differentiating single and double decks?

 

[90019]

Any reason for differentiating single and double decks?

We're on different contracts. The rate of pay is the same, but various other things are different.

It's a shorter day on the deckers, but I'm on the four day rota, which is only on the single decks. I work 12 hour days, but only work four days a week, and get a long weekend of six days every few weeks.

 

[sheff'd victoria]

With Bath having inherited some of the rubbish that formerly ran at Mainline, I can believe this...

Its a merry go round then as FSY get's the rejects from First in London

I think that that says more about the kind of moaners you get on that forum - there's about a thousand threads of people arguing about parking charges in comparison

You may have noticed some big improvements on FSY's Sheffield operations in the past month or two?

As an ex team leader for FSY they are right to moan their hearts out on the Sheffield Forum, this was the worst company I ever worked for, the number of drivers that leave in the first year is astonishing.

The only improvement Sheffield will get is when First leave their and the whole of South Yorkshire

 

[LE Greys]

And to add to all my complaints about Arriva, they've recently become horribly unreliable. Not only have they cut the service, but currently only about 50% of buses on the route I use actually run (unless I'm just incredibly unlucky). I'm going to start keeping count.

 

[Statto]

Its a merry go round then as FSY get's the rejects from First in London



As an ex team leader for FSY they are right to moan their hearts out on the Sheffield Forum, this was the worst company I ever worked for, the number of drivers that leave in the first year is astonishing.

The only improvement Sheffield will get is when First leave their and the whole of South Yorkshire

First are leaving Wirral & Chester as they've sold the operations to Stagecoach, so an improvement already.

 

[overthewater]

SO lets look at very bottom of the line,

* What is the worse Stagecoach company in the UK?
* What is the WORSE First Company in the UK? ( There must be one that stands out)
* What is the worse Arriva company, That titles would have went to Scotland company but since thats gone I have no idea.

Will it be possible to all agree on one company

 

[tbtc]

As an ex team leader for FSY they are right to moan their hearts out on the Sheffield Forum, this was the worst company I ever worked for, the number of drivers that leave in the first year is astonishing.

The only improvement Sheffield will get is when First leave their and the whole of South Yorkshire

Fair enough, if you want to ignore the forty double deckers they've recently added, the fares cut by around a third etc - why let the facts get in the way?

 

[northwichcat]

I nominate a small bus company - Tomlinson Travel.

If you have a Solo with LED displays why have them permanently turned off and use unilluminated paper displays on night buses?

If you purchased a bus off the previous operator who fitted with a blind that shows the correct destination, why set it to a position that shows the "Service" part of "School Service" instead of the actual destination?

If the bus isn't fitted with a destination display why use a poorly handwritten destination on some days when on another day the same service can be operated by a bus with 2 computer printed paper displays?

One driver for them:
* Illegally sounds the horn when he sees someone he knows out on foot to get their attention.
* Pulls up blocking a junction to drop a regular passenger off and then continues to chat to the passenger who is alighting for 5-10 minutes before moving off, even though there is no scheduled extended layover in the timetable.

And this company doesn't seem to run any commercial services - only subsided public routes and subsided school services, so they must be getting a chunky share of council tax payers money.

 

[sheff'd victoria]

Fair enough, if you want to ignore the forty double deckers they've recently added, the fares cut by around a third etc - why let the facts get in the way?

I hear on the grapevine that some more souble deckers are on the way.....all 02 plates from the London area, more rejects heading Sheffield's way

They have had to cut their fares down as they are losing money to Stagecoach and the penny has dropped at last

 

[Harlesden]

I must say I don't really understand the comments about drivers being miserable or rude. Buses are driven by human beings. Human beings are emotional beings often affected by domestic issues, bad news, good news etc. One person may be able to return to work just a week after the unexpected death of a parent or child and interact with colleagues and passengers fairly normally while another person will be experiencing serious grief for months. Extreme example yes, but the point is every human being is different and reacts to situations in different ways. It makes no sense to me to criticize any bus company over the way the drivers interact with passengers because every bus company in the country employs a broad mix of people all united in performing one particular job, but each with his/her own personality, problems and issues.
Don't judge what you don't know.
How would you feel if you questioned a particular driver about his/her sullen attitude and demeanor only to be told that he/her kid had been killed in a car crash last week or was lying critically ill in hospital with a potentially fatal condition? Employers are not known for their sensitive handling of employees' personal tragedies like to temporarily affect their work performance. "Be back at work on Monday or you're sacked" is an incredibly harsh and insensitive thing to say to an employee who has suffered a serious domestic issue and need a little time to get himself together to perform his job the way he wants to perform it.

 

[tbtc]

I hear on the grapevine that some more souble deckers are on the way.....all 02 plates from the London area, more rejects heading Sheffield's way

Sorry, but the way that enthusiasts refer to anything that isn't brand new as a "reject" is pretty embarassing - lots do it, and I don't mean to single you out, but I see it everywhere, like the railway lines which will see refurbished four coach EMUs replacing 30m Pacers (and still people grumble about "cast offs" and "rejects")...

If it's 02 plate 'deckers replacing R/S/T reg B10BLEs (of which there are many) then that's a step forward.

 

[34D]

Sorry, but the way that enthusiasts refer to anything that isn't brand new as a "reject" is pretty embarassing - lots do it, and I don't mean to single you out, but I see it everywhere, like the railway lines which will see refurbished four coach EMUs replacing 30m Pacers (and still people grumble about "cast offs" and "rejects")...

If it's 02 plate 'deckers replacing R/S/T reg B10BLEs (of which there are many) then that's a step forward.

Seconded.

 

[causton]

I nominate a small bus company - Tomlinson Travel.

If you have a Solo with LED displays why have them permanently turned off and use unilluminated paper displays on night buses?

If you purchased a bus off the previous operator who fitted with a blind that shows the correct destination, why set it to a position that shows the "Service" part of "School Service" instead of the actual destination?

If the bus isn't fitted with a destination display why use a poorly handwritten destination on some days when on another day the same service can be operated by a bus with 2 computer printed paper displays?

One driver for them:
* Illegally sounds the horn when he sees someone he knows out on foot to get their attention.
* Pulls up blocking a junction to drop a regular passenger off and then continues to chat to the passenger who is alighting for 5-10 minutes before moving off, even though there is no scheduled extended layover in the timetable.

And this company doesn't seem to run any commercial services - only subsided public routes and subsided school services, so they must be getting a chunky share of council tax payers money.

Probably because they either don't have the facilities or hardware to program or update the LED signs - perhaps the sign isn't actually working, I presume the operator needs a computer and a cable or something to reprogram the LED blinds!

And on some perhaps the driver is just lazy and doesn't want to turn the blind at each end, like when you see on a train on a branch line one destination at one end and the other destination at the other end. For example, one particular bus with Uno always seems to show "Hatfield Campus" instead of "Hatfield Business Park" because (as a driver once told me) the Campus is repeated throughout the blinds but the Business Park is right at the end (no idea why as most services terminate there!) and when the bus is running late, passengers would rather you made up time than spent a couple of minutes going past all the unused destinations to the "proper" one! (Likewise, sometimes that particular bus just shows blank/"Service")

 

[Tomonthetrain]

They are an improvement on the previous incarnation, the similarly named, but different entity 'Banga Travel', run by the current manager of 'Banga Buses' father -they lost their licence at the traffic commissioner following several high profile incidents including a bus exploding as it left the depot.

http://wmbusphotos.com/Banga/E206GPV.html
http://wmbusphotos.com/Banga/E410EPE.html
A couple of fine examples above of the previous 'Banga Travel' fleet, lasting in service until 2007 in some cases when the traffic commissioner finally pulled the plug.


Some of the current fleet members, including the ex NXWM example below, are very respectable in comparison.

http://wmbusphotos.com/Banga/S240EWU.html

See a few articles below for details. I think they would be a very strong contender for Britain's Worst Bus Operator.

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2009/01/19/hearing-to-decide-fate-of-banga-buses/

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2009/02/26/bus-firm-banga-looks-at-new-name/

I had the pleasure to ride on a couple of their step entrance stock and I must say it was better than the Rotala crapola that I had to endure later that day. Better drivers than Rotala, more efficient services and better livery than Rotala Red!

 

[northwichcat]

Probably because they either don't have the facilities or hardware to program or update the LED signs - perhaps the sign isn't actually working, I presume the operator needs a computer and a cable or something to reprogram the LED blinds!

If you aren't able to use the LED display then why not remove it and sell it to another operator who wants one and then fit a traditional blind?

Or do what some drivers do when they get a new route and it's not been programmed in and get it to just show the service number?

Since I posted that their Solo seems to have disappeared and they've got a new minibus which has a dot matrix display able to show the correct route.

 

[Tomonthetrain]

If you aren't able to use the LED display then why not remove it and sell it to another operator who wants one and then fit a traditional blind?

Or do what some drivers do when they get a new route and it's not been programmed in and get it to just show the service number?

Since I posted that their Solo seems to have disappeared and they've got a new minibus which has a dot matrix display able to show the correct route.

Either that or buy some Centrads!