Trivia: The Best and Worst Bus Companies/ regional variants (e.g. Stagecoach South) in Britain

[150249]

I would like to know everyone's opinions on the bus companies throughout the country. I would like to know how reliable and customer-friendly each company is among other things.

In my opinion the best is First West of England and the worst is Stagecoach South West. Its going off of companies I have personally experienced but we will see what everyone thinks.

 

[Simon75]

First Potteries, network slashed over last 5 years or so, poor evening and Sunday service
Arriva North West (Winsford/,Macclesfield garage) same as, poor evening and Sunday service, network slashed

 

[sk688]

First WoE has gone backwards dramatically since James Freeman left imo

Arriva's MK operations have the a managed decline aura that is truly impressive as to how embedded it is.

 

[WY Bus Spotter]

Up here in West Yorkshire, I believe First have hugely improved from where they were a few years ago. Lots of investment in new buses, a new local livery and with the aid of West Yorkshire Combined Authority: better maps and information for the travelling public.

Arriva Yorkshire has fallen dramatically. Once it had a proud fleet of smart buses including Sapphire and Max brands, they did brand launches and all sorts. Take a look at them currently. The fleet is a disgrace. Buses in all sorts of different, unbranded liveries. Disgruntled staff looking for a pay rise. Dirty interiors. Poor social media and marketing. And to top it off a quite franky shocking website as many people on here will have seen.

Transdev can come in for a lot of criticism but they run a network of extremely smart buses with all the mod-cons. Their marketing and social media presence is superb when compared with other operators. Overall they are the best operator in the region.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Based on my experience in the last couple of years, the best First OpCo is probably First South West though with honourable mentions for First Hampshire and Dorset and for Eastern Counties. Sadly West of England is on the slide though. The worst... well I've not been on First South Yorkshire for a while which was garbage but from a distance is looking better. It is probably First Essex though they are finally starting to sort it out.

Stagecoach is generally decent but thought Stagecoach East is looking jaded, whilst the South West and West businesses aren't what they were. Thought South East was decent enough when had a trip about a year ago.

Arriva... where do you start? Probably the best is still North East (but north of the Tyne) or Wales but the lack of investment and overall presentation is really, really showing. However, the worst is Arriva Southern Counties. Harlow's fleet was the absolute pits - even the relatively new e200mmcs seem down at heel. However, it was the former M&D operations in Kent that shocked me by just how bad they were.

I always find it intriguing that there is a group of people who love to pick holes in Transdev, usually highlighting every transgression that may undermine their "amazing" strapline. Yes, they're not perfect and you can highlight their faults but when you compare them to their neighbours (let alone the worst firms), you appreciate how good they are or at least attempt to be.

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Worst regional variant? Two words - First Bristol. Never have I experienced anywhere such shoddy reliability and utter incompetence in running a service as I have in Bristol, and it's been like that for years. I can't really comment on the rest of the First West of England operation, but based on the limited experience I've had, at least I've actually gotten to my destination!

Diamond Bus South East are also a truly atrocious operation, I've found. Aside from the fact that they don't bother to respond to any of their emails, the kind of service they provide on the buses themselves makes me think that being surly, rude and having zero customer service skills must be listed as a desirable quality on their driver application form.

Not to tar all of their drivers with the same brush, however, as I have met a handful of lovely drivers, but the majority I've encountered with this company exude zero professionalism and seem to take joy in belittling and arguing with you about tickets which they are clueless about. Evidently ticketing training is one aspect the company has failed at, not to mention customer service training.

In terms of reliability, Stagecoach South (particularly in the Guildford area) are a nightmare to travel with at the moment, with services constantly being cancelled at short notice day after day due to driver shortages - often with consecutive "hourly" services cancelled, leaving you to wait two, three hours just to get home. When they do run, however, they are rather pleasant to travel with.

Definitely agree about Arriva Southern Counties - a right scruffy mess. During their final few weeks before they pulled out of Guildford, you'd be forgiven for mistaking them for the ropey cowboy independent - disgustingly filthy buses held together by gaffer tape, appalling reliability, drivers wearing hoodies...

(Pictures attached show the state of one of Arriva Guildford's buses on one of my final journeys with them!)

On the flip side, White Bus Services - also in the same general area - are an excellent small operator, with fantastic reliability, friendly drivers and spotless buses.

Similarly, Falcon Buses have improved (and expanded) massively in the past couple of years and are also a very smart little operator.

 

[rg177]

Go North East seem to vary wildly across the region. I live north of the river and use their services down the Coast Road (309/310/311) most often which are generally reliable, or at least frequent enough that you don't tend to notice when the service is up the creek.

They've also slashed fares compared to pre-COVID in an attempt to bring back passengers. The fare to Newcastle for me recently "rose" to £2 for the seven or so miles, while in 2019 it was £3.20.

We haven't been affected by driver shortages (unlike another depots) and I find drivers to be generally very pleasant and friendly. I remember when I moved to Sheffield for uni back in 2017 and being stunned at how many First South Yorkshire drivers would just be outwardly horrible to passengers for the sake of it (laughing at them when they'd present a large denomination note, snatching bank cards, etc).

That said, they have competition with Arriva (albeit no competition with Metro) and patronage is high so there's an incentive to try. The main fleet is a set of B9s which are approaching 10yr old but are nicely refurbished, supplemented by some rather careworn 04-06 reg Omnidekkas.

 

[150249]

Worst regional variant? Two words - First Bristol. Never have I experienced anywhere such shoddy reliability and utter incompetence in running a service as I have in Bristol, and it's been like that for years. I can't really comment on the rest of the First West of England operation, but based on the limited experience I've had, at least I've actually gotten to my destination!

I always thought they were quite good! Come to Exeter to experience worse

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

I always thought they were quite good! Come to Exeter to experience worse

Haha, maybe I've just been unlucky!

Still puzzles me to this day how those six consecutive buses mysteriously disappeared somewhere along Bath Road.

 

[goldisgood]

From my frequent journeys around Oxford, I honestly can't fault the service from Stagecoach West (for the ex-Oxfordshire division - the rest of the company seems a bit of a mess at the moment). The quality and presentation of the fleet is very good, and certainly has improved over the past couple months with the worst ex-Gold buses starting to see refurbishments. Services generally show up and are on time, drivers are friendly enough and the prices of single-operator tickets are far cheaper than they used to be, and are extremely good value.
Unfortunately can't bring anywhere near the same level of praise for Oxford Bus Company - whilst a few years back both operations were to a similarly high standard, recent usage of OBC has been a much less positive experience. The condition of the fleet varies hugely, with the oldest members of the fleet looking and feeling very tired, with even vehicles the same age as Stagecoach's oldest looking comparatively far more tired. Ticket prices have continued to increase and are noticeably more expensive than Stagecoach, and punctuality has historically been abysmal, but has been a lot better since splitting routes in the city centre during the pandemic. Have unfortunately had a couple run ins with a small number of rude drivers both on the bus and while cycling, which hasn't been reflected in more frequent travel with Stagecoach. In fairness to the operation, it is vastly better than others which I have used across the country, but has a long way to go to get back to the standards it was at before and to meet the standards of their competition, with comments from friends and family tending to say the same.

 

[SSmith2009]

Wellglade Group (trentbarton, kinchbus etc...) have definitely gone down hill over the last few years with service standards and reliability

Definitely a shadow of their former self compared with the Alex Hornby era

More cuts are coming on 2nd October to Skylink routes including the axing of Skylink Nottingham buses between EMA Gateway and Loughborough which date back to the rainbow5 (perhaps even longer?)

 

[NorthernSpirit]

Wellglade Group (trentbarton, kinchbus etc...) have definitely gone down hill over the last few years with service standards and reliability

Definitely a shadow of their former self compared with the Alex Hornby era

More cuts are coming on 2nd October to Skylink routes including the axing of Skylink Nottingham buses between EMA Gateway and Loughborough which date back to the rainbow5 (perhaps even longer?)

High Peak are a joke especially with the former Trentbarton Transpeak service, which would do better under another operator or even as a standalone operation which could be extended back to Nottingham. Then there's the timetable issue with the 58 from Chatsworth missing the 61 from Buxton to Glossop by five minutes, its as if to make it an inconvenence.

Isn't High Peak ops shared with Centrebus? If so then my view on Centrebus will be tainted since Centrebus Holdings (who ran the former KLine, Huddersfield Bus Company and White Rose Bus Company) ran a reasonable service in West Yorkshire before Arriva bought out the remaining share and turned it into Yorkshire Tiger which eventually went downhill with a fleet which appeared to have been driven to the edge by Adrien Fourmaux at the helm.

 

[Russel]

Wellglade Group (trentbarton, kinchbus etc...) have definitely gone down hill over the last few years with service standards and reliability

Definitely a shadow of their former self compared with the Alex Hornby era

More cuts are coming on 2nd October to Skylink routes including the axing of Skylink Nottingham buses between EMA Gateway and Loughborough which date back to the rainbow5 (perhaps even longer?)

I have to say I agree, the 2008-2018 era of Trent Barton is now just a good memory.

We've been visiting Devon for a couple of years now and I've noticed how Stagecoach South West seem to have let standards slip in regards to presentation, they seem to have lost interest in presentation of anything in not in the new livery. Time keeping and reliability have always been hit and miss.

 

[Timmyd]

Within South London, Go Ahead and Stagecoach are definitely the best, Abellio‘s standards are terrible - they buy nice new buses but they are trashed in no time and driver standards are poor.

 

[150249]

I have to say I agree, the 2008-2018 era of Trent Barton is now just a good memory.

We've been visiting Devon for a couple of years now and I've noticed how Stagecoach South West seem to have let standards slip in regards to presentation, they seem to have lost interest in presentation of anything in not in the new livery. Time keeping and reliability have always been hit and miss.

And the amount of buses and drivers are rapidly decreasing

 

[61653 HTAFC]

High Peak are a joke especially with the former Trentbarton Transpeak service, which would do better under another operator or even as a standalone operation which could be extended back to Nottingham. Then there's the timetable issue with the 58 from Chatsworth missing the 61 from Buxton to Glossop by five minutes, its as if to make it an inconvenence.

Isn't High Peak ops shared with Centrebus? If so then my view on Centrebus will be tainted since Centrebus Holdings (who ran the former KLine, Huddersfield Bus Company and White Rose Bus Company) ran a reasonable service in West Yorkshire before Arriva bought out the remaining share and turned it into Yorkshire Tiger which eventually went downhill with a fleet which appeared to have been driven to the edge by Adrien Fourmaux at the helm.

The way KLine was treated under Yorkshire Tiger was atrocious. Prior to being bought out they'd always been a decent operator, if a little rough round the edges in terms of uniform policy. Rebranding as "Tiger Blue" was a ridiculous decision.

Huddersfield has had its fair share of dodgy, cowboy fly-by-night operators over the years... in particular one branded as "Easi-Rider" which was started by the owner of a local minicab firm, was shockingly bad for reliability, timekeeping, and the general state of the vehicles.

 

[CBlue]

Stagecoach is generally decent but thought Stagecoach East is looking jaded, whilst the South West and West businesses aren't what they were. Thought South East was decent enough when had a trip about a year ago.

Arriva... where do you start? Probably the best is still North East (but north of the Tyne) or Wales but the lack of investment and overall presentation is really, really showing. However, the worst is Arriva Southern Counties. Harlow's fleet was the absolute pits - even the relatively new e200mmcs seem down at heel. However, it was the former M&D operations in Kent that shocked me by just how bad they were.

I always find it intriguing that there is a group of people who love to pick holes in Transdev, usually highlighting every transgression that may undermine their "amazing" strapline. Yes, they're not perfect and you can highlight their faults but when you compare them to their neighbours (let alone the worst firms), you appreciate how good they are or at least attempt to be.

East is starting to look careworn, indeed. Seems there's people on the ground doing their best to provide a service, but vehicle allocations have got to the extent of "if it's roadworthy, it goes out" with some of the older E400s getting very scruffy, and occasions of small single decks being allocated to known busy peak workings on long distance routes. Cambridge especially seems to be a mess branding wise....I can walk to the end of my street and see multiple flavours of park and ride liveries, Stagecoach gold branding, and two different Busway liveries - all on the same route!

The fuel bill from operating (relatively) thirsty Scanias on low speed town routes around Cambridge can't help the economics stack up either.....

 

[miklcct]

For the bus companies (outside London) I have used:

The best one: Go South Coast
The worst one: Yellow Buses (which went bust thanks to the poor service)

 

[32625]

I've not used many companies but I have to say First Kernow and Go Cornwall Bus have been very good whenever I have used them in the last year or so.

Stagecoach South West, on the other hand, were atrocious when I went to Barnstaple last week. I saw a 13 plate decker with a fair amount of dark smoke out of the exhaust, for a bus of that age and there were many others looking quite battered. The service reliability also seemed very poor. It almost reminded me of the dark days of First around 10 years ago. It was quite a stark contrast to when I used their buses in the past.

 

[DunsBus]

Munro's of Jedburgh surely must merit a mention in the "worst" category. Not withstanding the hijinks which led to its licence being revoked, with its consequent reincarnation on a new licence only lasting a matter of weeks until the banks pulled the plug, its fleet was in a very sorry state by the end with one of its seven 06-plate MAN/MCVs having been ordered off the road by VOSA after soot was found in the passenger area. Service reliability had also nosedived over a period of several years.

It was little wonder, then, that the local authority (Scottish Borders Council) finally ran out of patience with Munro's in 2013 and stripped them of all of their local service contracts on retendering.

 

[Statto]

The worst company ever, has to be UK North GM buses, which operated in Manchester 2005 - 06 (GM Buses was a new GM Buses, but owned by UK North). They were a complete cowboy company, employed foreign labour on the cheap, and caused mayhem in the City Centre when they registered new routes. They ended up having a few accidents, one of which was a fatal incident with a cherry picker, and they ended up being closed down by the Traffic Commissioner. A couple of directors were later jailed over unsafe work practices.

 

[Towers]

Another vote for Go Southcoast as a good'un here; I know the fares are pricey but that does generally seem to be reflected in a quality operation overall, with decent vehicles and trunk routes that are very usable.

I don't think I've used any genuinely bad operators recently....

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

They have improved markedly but Diamond Bus in Worcestershire was appalling for a good few years and is probably still the worst part of the Rotala group. Not experienced the Preston Bus operation but from limited experience, the best Rotala firm I've been on was North West. They had a rocky start when they took over Bolton and closed Atherton but thought they were decent.

 

[davehsug]

First Potteries comfortably the worst. An area of near on 500,000 with vast areas left with no services on evenings and weekends. The best that I have experience of seems to be Blackpool Transport. Always modern buses, on a decent frequency all day.

 

[Simon75]

First Potteries comfortably the worst. An area of near on 500,000 with vast areas left with no services on evenings and weekends. The best that I have experience of seems to be Blackpool Transport. Always modern buses, on a decent frequency all day.

Agree with First Potteries (see also my post #2

Population of the "Potteries (Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle and Kidsgrove)" c 400,000 .
More deep cuts due (see Staffordshire bus news thread), due end of September 2022, however , nothing published yet except on traveling, though things night change

 

[Pokelet]

Vote for First Worcester here. Ramshackle, aging and multicoloured fleet. Services cut or removed left right and centre. Frequency greatly reduced. They even stopped serving one route completely a few years back and left the timetables up.

The county council doesn't help, they aren't very pro-bus and have if anything been held ransom over 2 routes First threatened to withdraw. That said neither side is covering themselves with glory and realistically there aren't any alternative providers in the wings.

 

[MaidaVale]

My personal picks for a best would be First South West, followed shortly by First West of England and Trentbarton.

As a middle ground, I find Transdev Blazefield and Go North East do not offer particularly poor service quality, although are overrated by many as their services are fairly standard and not comparable to a considerable ammount that are better.

A worst pick would have to be Arriva Midlands and Diamond.

 

[fgwrich]

Here in the sunny south, I would say the best has to be:

Southern Vectis - The absolute Jewel in the Go SouthCoast crown, cheap fares, smartly turned out vehicles and a service pattern which frankly puts most companies one the Mainland to shame - frequent late night services, what are those these days (cough, Stagecoach)

On the flip side, Stagecoach South isn't what it used to be. While my local operation has a fleet of nice and new Enviro 200 MMCs, it also has some absolute tat. In fact, recent swap arounds seem to have involved taking the smartly turned out E300s from Basingstoke to Aldershot and sending around the runt of the older E200s (61 plate) in return. One of which decided it didn't want to stay in service on my way into work yesterday morning and duly died in service - the irony, the recently repainted 54 plate dart (which I believe is soon to be on the disposal list) trundled up and down my route all day long, including providing a rescue service to us. But service reliability seems to have dropped off a cliff, coms is poor, the soul seems to have rather gone from it all.

Honorable mentions here to both First Solent - who really do seem to be turning the Portsmouth operation around, even if it involves a load of Streetlites, and the the non group Reading Buses who have always seemed like a smart, fairly reliable and switched on operator.