Stagecoach/Provincial > Reviews

Advantages: You can get to places that you want (sometimes), relatively new vehicles
Disadvantages: very expensive, lack of knowldge, manners

My experience of first provincial is not good. Living in Portsmouth, there are two bus companies, First and Stagecoach, neither are excellent, though each have their own merits and advantages. The vehicles These can vary from journey to journey, you could have a brand new omnicity (new last december) or a relatively new volvo (w or s reg) or a vehicle around this era. Also you could get a surprise, a very old, noisy, dirty, rarely cleaned minibus ... Read review

Advantages: quicker than walking sometimes, my dad drives ffor another branch of this company
Disadvantages: the price, nightbus service

I rely on public transport to get me about most of the time. Sometimes I am lucky enough to get a lift with my housemate Frank but most of the time it is either Shank’s Pony or the No 50 bus kindly provided by Mr. Souter of stagecoach. So are Stagecoach Manchester any good or am I left champing at the bit as I wait for hours on hours for a non-existent bus as it has been cancelled. Who Are Stagecoach? Stagecoach is a multinational company founded ... Read review

Advantages: Sometimes you can actually get to your destination!
Disadvantages: Expensive and unreliable

Stagecoach! Pah! Like most areas the deregulation of bus services some years ago led to a multitude of different bus companies running services within the same area. Where I live (Surrey) we have as our main bus companies Arriva, Stagecoach, Green Line and Safeguard. Stagecoach sticks out like a sore thumb for poor (non-existent almost!) customer service aswell as being hideously overpriced. In my area there are a couple of long routes they ... Read review

Advantages: They're not as bad as you think, fairly reliable, usually works
Disadvantages: Some surly drivers, buses are powered by apathy and half-assedness

I'll be honest....I don't think Stagecoach is actually that bad. I know they've got one hell of a reputation, and yeah, some of it's true, but in my experience, they've never actually been monumentally awful. I mean, they get me from A to B, only occasionally detouring through point C whilst the driver's mind in somewhere at point D. Above all, I feel sorry for the lowly Stagecoach driver. It can't be easy, weighing 15 stone, or being a transvestite, ... Read review

Advantages: Scottish / British. Large.
Disadvantages: Large! It got political.

Stagecoach is a controversial company. It has had its wrist well and truly slapped by various official Fair Trade organisations. The chairman and founder of the company has given millions of pounds to support an action group committed to keep homosexuality banned from sex education in Scottish schools. Stagecoach has Scottish roots. It was a well organised and smoothly greased company that was able to run efficiently, make a profit and grow large ... Read review

Advantages: cheap bus pass.
Disadvantages: takes too long, unreliable service

I have been using Stagecoach buses for work for over 3 years now. At first they used to be reliable. The bus I used was the X43 to Manchester, I got off at Burnley Bus Station and had 15minutes left to get a coffee before work. I buy a weekly rover which costs £8.50, this gets me to work and back for 7 days if I wanted . I only use it for 5 days, but it's still good value. The journey used to take about 1 hour, I used to take a good book ... Read review

Advantages: Reasonable prices
Disadvantages: Some irresponsible drivers, poor customer service

I'll be getting a reputation as a bus spotter - this is my second opinion on the subject, I can assure you this isn't the case! Stagecoach, owned by millionaire Brian Souter (who fronted the campaign to retain Section 28), is a large UK wide firm, running bus services both long and short distance. (And also trains in some regions). My experience of Stagecoach has been largly poor... The fleet of buses in my region (Lothian) is mixed - some ... Read review

Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Too many too mention

Haven't spotted a North West bit for Stagecoach, so hope you don't mind if I dump my opnion here. 1. Stagecoach are contraversial in Manchester. One of their services serving Ashton was suspended for a few weeks by our GMPTE for trying to make passengers go on the Stagecoach buses rather than the Dennis bus companies vehicles that were also on that route. 2. The 192 bus service which is a very popular route had another bus operator making ... Read review

Advantages: Gets you from 'a' to 'b'
Disadvantages: cost is far too much

Recently, the bus and metro fares have nearly doubled. A few weeks ago, a childfare was 25p all the time but now it's gone up to 40p after 7pm, weekends and school holidays so you can only get the 25p fare when you're at school which is a waist of time. This is rediculous considering the fact that they are trying to get more people to use public transport. It used to cost an easy £1.00 to get to the metro centre but now it's a stupid amount of £1.60. ... Read review

Advantages: Can be sure not to be turned off a bus
Disadvantages: waste of time money and paperwork

My daughter was thirteen last May and has begun to worry that she might be turned off the school bus, operated by First Provincial, for not having enough bus fare. So I thought I should enquire about an "under 16 bus pass" to prove she was entitled to half fares. We had to get passport photograghs taken and take them to Fareham, Portsmouth or Gosport (the shortest journey being at least 15 minutes) with her birth certificate to collect the pass. The ... Read review

Advantages: Buses have seats
Disadvantages: Poor service, old buses, grumpy drivers, unreliable, costly, poor complaints procedures

We live about ten miles outside Aberdeen & although I drive my wife doesn't, so her only means of public transport is Stagecoach buses. We are all encouraged to leave the car at home & use public transport, I only wish one of those worthless politicians who keeps reminding us about it came & witnessed Stagecoach bus services in our area. My wife has used it regularly for the past three years & these are some of her experiences. There was a shortage ... Read review

Advantages: Enabling you to move about without a car
Disadvantages: too many to write about on one line

Stagecoach bus services - buses being the shortened version of the word omnibus - seem to have lost the plot. Years ago we associated stagecoaches with westerns and romantic melodrama. Personally I wish it had stayed that way! Stagecoach originally bought out our local bus company some nine years ago, which I think was called Bayline. I think this was how Stagecoach originally started, buying small and maybe failing local bus companies. After ... Read review