First Eastern

Advantages: fast and frequent services; usually friendly staff
Disadvantages: indifferent timekeeping; expensive fares

First Eastern (used to be Eastern National Omnibus Company) provides most of the public transport services in central and north Essex. It has made considerable investment in new Scania buses recently and - as a car driver - I think they are an acceptable alternative in terms of comfort. But there are still plenty of older vehicles around. Travel on those is not so pleasant, particularly in the rush hour. While fares are quite expensive in absolute ...
...While being generally positive about using First Eastern, there is one major caveat. It is only a worthwhile service in day time. By 7 o'clock in the evening most of the buses are tucked up in their garages and the service is reduced to a skeleton schedule. ... Read review

Advantages: Good announcements
Disadvantages: Generally packed trains

..., I was a somewhat hardened commuter already. I was used to rarely getting a seat, and trains not running to time. For all the problems that Connex were having, being dragged from pillar to post for their poor service in the media, I expected better things from First Great Eastern. Now, two years of cramped trains, faulty signals and poor service, I’m back working in Chelmsford, and am glad to be rid of my daily grind into work. You see I am big and ugly enough to take the occasional mis-hap on the way to work. It’s beyond the realms of probability that a train company will be able to run all of it’s trains on time, in a clean and safe environment. I accept that there will be times when a signal DOES fail, or a train DOES break down. I find it hard to believe, however, that these things can happen time and time again... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: frequent services
Disadvantages: dirty and no seats at peak times

...I always thought that when you buy a train ticket that you were purchasing a seat on a train. First Great Eastern obviously think differently. First Great Eastern run train services between London, Southend, Ipswich, Harwich and Clacton plus a couple of smaller branch lines. First Great Eastern itself was formed with privatisation in the late 1990’s as part is the First Bus group of companies. This review mainly concentrates on services between Chelmsford and Liverpool Street as this is the route that I have daily experience of. However having used other services on an infrequent basis and discussed their services with friends who use First Great Eastern services from other destinations I think this review does give a fairly accurate pictures of their services as a whole. In general terms the facilities at Chelmsford... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good value, Fast journey times
Disadvantages: Not that comfortable

...First Great Eastern is a train operating company which operates metro and medium distance journeys in the south-east out of it's London terminal Liverpool Street. I used to be a student in Barking, and at first used to use the District Line and c2c from Barking station to get to Central London. But i found that using Goodmayes station (which is marginally closer to me), it was quicker, more frequent amd more reliable to use the First Great Eastern Metro service offered from the station. The First Great Eastern Metro is a frequent service from London Liverpool Street to Shenfield. A normal weekday will see a frequency of a train every 10 minutes in both directions. Some services are faster services - they do not call at Manor Park, Forest Gate and Maryland. This means that from Goodmayes, Liverpool Street can be 15 minutes away... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful