I have been a regular travel on First Southampton for the last three years to travel to and from uni and work.
The comfort of the seats are OK but could be better if the company spent more money, they get more than enough from the fares that they charge.
Service of customers is average. The drivers can get stressed at times - especially on packed buses and when people are being noisy. The drivers are better than they used to be though. Some drivers will help elderly people on and off the bus, but some drivers may not wait for an OAP to sit down before they drive off
The frequency of the buses for most services (3, 3A, 4, 5, 5A, 8, 8A, 10, 10A, 11, 11A, 16A, 17, 17A, 17E) are supposed to run every 20 minutes, however you could easily be waiting longer than this. For example I have waited almost an hour for Service 5A on Tuesday afternoons on multiple occassions. However the other
services (6, 6A, 12, 20, 21, 22, 23) Run every hour and you should only rely on these if you really need to use these services. There is one other service - 24 - This service runs from City Centre to Hursley at 7am and runs back at 5pm.
The fares have gone twice since last update! Adult fares for single journeys now cost between 70p to £1.80 depending on the journey length and returns cost £1.80 to £3 (there is no return fare for the 70p single journey price. Day riders now cost £2.80 for unlimited travel in the city and are available from the driver. Twelve trippers cost £10 and give you twelve trips of any length in the city but must be used up within a month. These are available from the driver. Weekly Riders cost £10.50 and monthly riders cost £33.50. Both allow unlimited travel in the city and both these tickets are available from the driver. You can also buy 3 monthly riders for £89 and Yearly riders cost £305. Both allow unlimited travel in the city but can only be bought from the travel shop. You can now buy Solent travel cards which allow unlimited transport in Hampshire on any of the bus companies and cost £5.50 for a day and £20 for a week and are also available from the driver.
Don't bother buying a child ticket unless you look 11 or under or unless you have the official first travel card which shows your date of birth, because you won't get away with it, you wil be asked to show your pass and if you don't have one, you will be charged full fare. You only get cheap travel fare if you are an OAP, and you need to have an OAP pass and you can travel any distance for just 30p for a journey (Journeys must be made after 9am to get OAP fare though, but only on Modays to Fridays)
Buses speed varies depending on the drivers. On a 40mph road drivers go at any speed from 20mph to 60mph and probably depending on whether they're early or late.
The reliability of the buses depends on the service - however don't always rely on the timetable as that is wrong and is only worth looking at times before 7am or after 10pm. And sometimes you can wait 30 minutes or more for a 20 minute service on a weekday afternoon. The times between the first bus and last bus for most sevices are pretty good - most common sevices starting at 5am and runing all the way till 11pm.
Some annoying little things to do with the services are that: No service 5A after 6pm on Sundays No service 6/6A after 5pm No service 6/6A on Sundays No service 8A on west Side of the city on Sundays No service 10A after 6pm No service 10A on west Side of the city on Sundays No service 12/20/21/22/23/24 on Sundays No service 12/20/21/22/23/24 after 5pm No Service 17 after 6pm on Sundays
The only decent buses are the London Buses and the new single deckers. The other ones are not very good and the OLD red double deckers certainly need replacing! And the bendy buses need to come back.
And before when I said about BlueStar(Blue Line formerly) being better value for money - they're not, so much so that it is cheaper to get the train from Southampton to Romsey. Train Single £2.90 Train Return £3.10 Bus (BlueStar 4) Single £3.40 Bus (BlueStar 4) Single £4.80
Recommend Uni-Link - £1 any journey.
THE ONLY REASON I SAID YES TO RECOMMEND IS BECAUSE THEYRE THE ONLY COMPANY THAT GOES TO LOTS OF PLACES ON THE WEST SIDE OF TOWN
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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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Review of First Southampton
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.
TYoung 06.09.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of First Southampton
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