Stagecoach/Provincial > Reviews > First bus, last bus!

Author's product rating:   

Quality of Rooms	Average
Customer service	average
Frequency of bus / buses	Poor
Value for money	Poor
Reliability	Average

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

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

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 or normal legnth bus. Now i dont really have a problem with this (being a bit of a lover of nostalgia), its the price that im paying for this that I do have a problem with!

The price
The price of the journey, in my opinion, is poor value for money. It costs me £1.15 to go from my home (North End) to Commercial Road (about a mile and a half away). This may sound reasonable, but when compared with Stagecoach which charges arond £1 for the same journey, using very similar vehicles, you start to see my problem. Also noted is that when i go to Southampton, also using first, and indeed the same part of the company, and get charged £1 for a journey 3 times the legnth of my journey in Portsmouth, you also see my problem!Ive previously written to the comapny to ask why this is so, they replied as follows "Southampton enjoys better economies of scale and therfore can provide a cheaper service"I pointed out that it is all part of First Hampshire and Dorset, and that surely the whole of the comapny would achieve the same benefits, to date im still waiting for a reply!

The Drivers/service
Now this is where i have to be careful, as my girlfriends dad is a bus driver with first!he provides a good level of service and politeness, as do a large proportion of drivers. However there is the small majority, as in all cases, that do not. I have previously had my change thrown at me, been spoken to as if ive asked the most difficult task ever and generally been greeted with a grunt. I understand that driving can be stressful and dealing with the public can be difficult, though i believe treat others as you would like to be treated, this small proportion do not. We also have the problem of Foreign drivers, i have no problem with them, they do a good job and are willing to work. The problem is that a large proprtion cannot speak fluent english and have not had training, to the names of destinations or tickets. It has often come to the point that i have had to point on the drivers destination sheet, where i would like to go!

The driving
Again as before, the majority are good at driving, you do however get the occasional one who it seems was taught to drive by Nigel Mansell. They go at 50 in a 20 area, they get right up behind the vehicle in front and are aggresive to other drivers. one recent journey,i had to get off early as i was so scared by the driving!I state however, this is a small selection of drivers only.

The Routes and timing
Recently due to driver shortages, services have been restricted or even ended completely. One such example is of the 3 (Southsea- Fareham), I used to go to the pub in elm grove on a friday on this route. The last bus was at 11.15pm, enough time to finish my last drink. However imagine my shock, when one week without notice, i went to catch the bus at the usual time and was shocked to find that the last bus was now 9.15pm!now thats a bit drastic!The other option was to walk five minutes and catch the 40. This used to run till around 11.30pm. Now however it finishes at 10.35pm, and only goes to commercial road. On my opinion this is mad, it has to go through North End to get back to the depot!We also have the problem of persistant lateness and even buses not turning up at all!

Other general comments
Overcrowding is also a large problem. One driver did not seem to know when enough was enough. He kept letting pasengers board even though there were no more seats, three pushcahirs and people standing solidlidly from the back to the front of the bus. On asking how many more could board, he replied "Still space aint there?" hhmm!dont know what he could see, that i couldnt!

Conclusion
Well as i first stated, First does have its good points, it gets me aroubd portsmouth for a start. However as listed above, there are signifigant disadvantages. I do try to avoid using first, unless neccessary and use Stagecoach, though they have a number of disadvantages, that i will discuss in another review.