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Advantages:
Buses go to all parts of Southampton . New buses provide comfort for all passengers, also good disabled facilities available . Free service from Train Station to the West Quay Shopping Centre .
Disadvantages:
The old buses are basically awful, needs to get rid of them and bring in newer buses . Needs to win back old bus users and introduce Student schemes .
First Bus is quite a new company in Southampton having taken over from the terrible 'City Bus'. When they took over from the unpopular company, they knew that to win back customers on their buses they need to improve drastically.
First Bus has only one company, which they are competing against in Southampton, which is Blue Line. Although Blue Line has many buses running in various places in Southampton, it isn't a major competitor which First Bus need to worry about as many of the routes which Blue line use are around the edges of Southampton. First Bus was chosen to introduce the newest kind of bus into Britain, which is the 'bendy bus', which is growing more popular around the country in major cities due to the success it is having in Southampton.
I want to get the bus, but where do they go?
With Southampton having a major new look these days, they have to have buses, which go to all the main areas of Southampton. First bus operates from the edge of the city and basically the buses run inwards having buses going everywhere. This provides people links to the main areas of Southampton such as the University,
City Centre, Southampton Docks/Port, St Mary's Friends ProvidentFootball Stadium, Southampton International Airport and also the train station.
With Southampton having a newer more modern image, I take it that the buses are looking brand spanking new?
I think First Bus is getting there, at the moment the company still has the old red style bus which tends to give the company the 'old fashioned' look still. With the introducing of the 'Bendy Buses' though, Southampton First Bus is becoming a good stylish way to travel.
The new styled buses are mostly all single decker, and if your thinking "The buses would always be packed" then the answer to that question would be - No, due to the two carriages which the buses have joint together which creates the 'Bendy Bus'.
As soon as you get on the bus, there are comfortable seats for all people and have excellent spacious room for prams and disabled facilities for wheelchair users. With the bus having two carriages, it allows a huge amount of people on the buses. Although there is still some rubbish being left on the buses, it has been cut down due to the bins available on the buses. All buses are non-smoking and if people fail to follow this rule then the cameras on the buses will spot this and the person would be fined. Also with the bus having two carriages, the people siting in the second carriage, don’t have to walk all through the two carriages to get off, but instead they can just get off at the automatic doors situated in the second carriage.
The old red buses are very old fashioned, they have a very gritty floor which over the years has turned a horrid brown colour, and the seats have rips & holes in are very uncomfortable to sit in. With no rubbish bins available on the buses, the rubbish does pile up on the floor, which is not a pleasant sight, when travelling on buses for a long duration. Also with no cameras on the upstairs of the buses, it's becoming a horrid place to sit due to the amounts of graffiti and a place where the smokers hang out. If First Bus got rid of these buses and replaced them with the new style buses then they would be greatly improved.
What are the staff members like on First Bus?
I feel the staff have improved since the old 'City Bus' company was bought by First Bus, however like in most companies, you get the odd person who just wants to go home for his Bacon Sarnie and often become stressful with anything slightly bad happening. Generally though, the staff tends to have a good attitude towards the customers and often give answers to various questions asked. Overall the staff seems helpful and do their job very well.
Now the most important question - What are the Bus Times and Bus Fare like?
Like all bus companies, the bus times at the bus stop doesn’t mean that’s the time the bus is going to come. This is probably the worse thing about First Bus. Only a few days ago, I waited for 50 odd minutes for a bus, which is meant to come every 20 minutes. I feel the company needs to improve the bus times as I know a lot of people refuse to wait for buses because of the inconsistency of the bus times.
Lately in Southampton the bus fare seems to go up every month, but I think the reason was due to Bus company not getting enough money so they put up the prices of the fare and also were considering stopping the buses running after 8pm. This caused some uproar with the bus users and after a long argument, this has now been settled and they will continue running until 11pm. However they still have kept the problem with the fare. I have to pay £1 for a 10 minute bus journey into the City Centre which is ridiculous. For people who use the bus often, Zip Cards can be purchased which are just like Phone Cards where money is taken off every time you access a bus. With Southampton having a large student population, I'm surprised that they don’t have a Student discount scheme available.
The positive thing about First Bus is that they introduced free…yes FREE bus services linked to various parts of the City Centre which provides people links from Southampton Central Railway Station to the newly opened West Quay Shopping Centre, which brings more people to Southampton.
What's next for First Bus?
I feel that Southampton First Bus is going in the right direction after introducing the new buses, all they need to do now is get rid of the old style red buses and get the bus times and the fare reduced to get more people on their buses. Also by introducing a student scheme, it would bring added customers to First Bus especially as Southampton University is spread out across Southampton.
Thanks for your time. Please feel free to add comments on this opinion or comments comparing your bus company in your area.
Ciao
Tim
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Nice to know im not the only one who cant find a first group bus running on time. About time we got some of them bendy busses up in south yorkshire, Ive been late for work several times besause my bus has been full. grrr. anyways, nice op Timba
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Advantages: They turn up usually (best we've got). Disadvantages: Poor value for money, average reliability, some rude staff and consistent cuts in services.
lukeamotionXL100 14.10.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of First Southampton
Sep 6th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
