Arriva > Reviews > Better than motorway travelling in a wheelie bin

Author's product rating:   

Quality of Rooms	Average
Customer service	very bad
Frequency of bus / buses	Very poor
Value for money	Very poor
Reliability	Poor

Advantages:	They're a monopoly, so you get no choice
Disadvantages:	everything you could ever imagine could be wrong,is .

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

All my life I have lived near my school. I loved it, having to be there at 8.45 and being able to wake up at 8.30 without fear of being late. Marvellous.
Sadly, some time ago now, I hit 16, the teachers started mumbling and made me go to college, which is quite a distance away.
My lovely mother, god bless her, works right near my college, but is still reluctant to give me a lift, I'm not old enough to drive, and taxi's cost me a fortune. Well, like it or not, my life now depends greatly upon this wonderful (sarcasm) company (more sarcasm) to get me to college, on time (most sarcasm yet).

Let me sum up my opinion in a short sentence for you, for those who wish to read no further: Arriva is a big pile of pathetic dung wearing a turquoise shirt and pretending to be public transport.

Right, all those who require further explanation, let's go.

Let's analyse Arriva shall we? and how we, the public, use them in our daily life.

OK, first step in using their service is the bus stop yes? Walk to your nearest one, which fortunately for me is not too far. Lately they've had the courtesy to post some of the timetables at the stop, most of these timetables have now been stolen, and the times on them are pretty much irrelevant, and they only have the times for the one or two main services, but it was a nice thought I suppose. That's the first complaint about the bus stop. Most of them have just been built around here, or "improved" but they still are in terrible condition, and often difficult to find. One of the biggest problems with the bus stop I have found is that the drivers of the buses don't really know what they're there for. The amount of times a driver has just gone straight past a crowd of us is getting ridiculous and I'm thinking in investing in one of those tyre-ripping strips that the police use to get the bus to actually stop. A lot of people who have been waiting for me with this bus were also unfortunate enough to have just missed the last bus home, some 9 or 10 miles to walk for them then, or a £30 taxi fare I suppose. Poor fellows.

In fact, the buses do stop occasionally, but it's usually when you don't want them to. Today, I incurred a 10 minute wait, two stops before my own whilst the lovely driver chatted up two 12 year old girls, and then realised he'd locked the brake and couldn't remember how to unlock it. Great. A lad in my maths class was recently an hour or so late for lesson because the bus was in such a bad state of repair the the side of it actually fell off whilst going over a speed bump, oops!

Well, they do have a few good points I suppose, the new bus designs are useful for the elderly and disabled, but the drivers are not. I recently witnessed a driver who began driving as soon as a pair of old ladies had stepped on the bus, they had to pay their fare and find a seat whilst the bus was in motion, this really isn't very considerate is it mister bus driver?

The time that a journey takes is actually quite amusing at times and at others it just makes you wonder why you didn't walk.

The bus isn't even cheap and cheerful anymore the weekly ticket which is designed for "value" is £8.50 for unlimited travel in the area, which is fair enough I suppose, but remember, I have to buy one every week and it all adds up, just to get to college?
There are cheap yearly tickets for students, but you have to catch the designated route at the designated time, or pay for your mistakes, and they won't even allow for when your bus home is too full to get on as far as I know.

It's not even easy to get around, they recently scrapped all the useful routes so now a change is necessary in pretty much all of my journeys, and of course, that costs more too.

This is, quite possibly, the worst run organisation I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing and I am very close to breaking into the bus yard and painting all the windows over with tarmac. Of course, that's not going to accomplish anything is it though? I really hope that Arriva go out of business or come under new management because they're making a lot of people's lives very difficult around here and I hate 'em for it.

Take the car, walk, cycle, even a pogo stick would be faster and more reliable, just don't get on their buses, they're a rip off, they're not safe, and you probably won't get there anytime this year.

Night all.

Jack

Oh, BTW, can I also add, that Arriva completely monopolises my area and I wish that there were some laws to prevent them from doing so because they're cack.

Yeah I know that people are allowed to start up routes, but there are problems quite competently outlined by others in the comments of this opinion. I think they should be split up or sommat, like Microsoft, but for real.

College can help with fares, in that you get you get an unlimited pass for £250 a term, and when I say unlimited, I mean unlimited, providing you catch ONLY the designated service on which there is often not even any standing room remaining, takes twice as long as the other buses, and you often don't want to go straight home from college anyway. And if you miss this bus? hahahaha.. you're screwed.