First Bus Reviews 3,138

First bus are so bad, the service is just truly awful. Just sat at a bus stop and 2 buses just didn’t show and then when one actually came the driver scowled at everyone, said he was going out of service and left. The bus is meant to be every 15 mins and it’s been an hour without one and this is a common occurrence. It used to be that buses were late occasionally and now you can never tell if one will come or it’s already left. In the last week I have seen 6 buses leave early!!! A huge proportion of the drivers are incredibly rude, the buses are filthy, yet they seem to bump up the price whenever they can. Fix your bloody service because it stinks!

horrible experience, i was about 50 pence short and the driver refused to let me on, and worst of all was I didnt even get a refund. horrible smelling busses aswell theres always drunk idiots on the top deck fighting and the whole enviroment is just discusting the seat busses are always dusty, gets me sneezing.

My bus is currently on a diversion due to gas works. The route it takes uses same stops that another regular First bus uses but now twice the drivers have not stopped and said they are not servicing stops. Both young men with not great people skills ibasked why and driver said not legal. Neither stop is busy like the town centre so this rule is absurd. Also the bus company put no notice up we could not get off at these stops. My usual experience is First buses do not show up especially at night but now they do not stop at bus stops. Bonkers. Also evening drivers are usually grumpy which is strange as the roads are quiet.

Second time got on a number 11 bus and asked for "Seafield/Countesswells shops" to find the Driver either doesn't listen or doesn't speak English as found myself having to get off at the Quarry an walk, in the dark, to Craigton Road on my own! Seriously, how difficult is it to understand your route? What is the training? On the way into town on the no 15, the Driver totally ignored a numbers of kids taking up halo the bus - when they pay nothing - shouting and generally being anti social. Do you want passengers???

The buses are coming and going as they want. There is absolutely no schedule. They are being cancelled last minute and even though there is an app it's not being updated properly so you can't find the information you looking for on it. The prices of the tickets are going up but the quality of the service is constantly dropping. Buses are very often overpacked and extremely dirty and stinky.

Today, I had to travel on the 333 service from Chelmsford bus station to Maldon. The bus departed on time at 11:30 (a miracle occurred!) and the driver was welcoming and friendly (unlike the usual silence or mere grunting that customers receive!).

However, despite this, 2 extremely serious incidents occurred before the bus had even left Chelmsford city centre.

• The driver drove straight through a red light only narrowly missing people using the pedestrian crossing.

I have previously had cause to report drivers running red lights but apparently some still think that this is acceptable behaviour.

IT IS NOT! …. IT PUTS OTHER ROAD USERS AND PEDESTRIANS AT SERIOUS RISK OF INJURY OR WORSE!

• Shortly after this, a frail elderly lady got on the bus and the driver drove off before she had safely sat down.

The lady lost her balance, fell to the floor and banged her head!

Any apology from the driver? …. NO!

Any explanation from the driver to the question asked by several people as to why he drove off before this lady had safely sat down? …. NO!

First Essex (First Excuse) drivers regularly drive off before people are safely seated! …. WHY?

This is the first time that I have witnessed this irresponsible behaviour resulting in a serious incident but I have heard several reports from other customers where serious injuries have occurred.

Both of these incidents that I have referred to are disgraceful and completely unacceptable!

When are First Essex (First Excuse) drivers going to use some common sense or, if that is entirely absent, when are they going to receive appropriate training on basic road safety and basic customer safety?

Doubtless First Essex (First Excuse) and First Bus (No Bus) will merely say that my reports have been referred to the anonymous and totally unaccountable “local management team” that do NOTHING TO TAKE ACTION TO RESOLVE COMPLAINTS AND DELIVER IMPROVEMENTS!

Plus, I am sure that they will want to add, as they did recently, the quite evidently ridiculous claim that “the safety of our passengers and staff is of upmost importance to us.”. How exactly is that reflected in both the incidents that I have had to report?

I cannot express how awful this company is. Glasgow Central has been out of service for two weeks and I am feeling the loss. I was stuck taking the 4 to southside Glasgow. What is listed as a 52 minute journey is quickly becoming a two hour journey. I haven’t even made it to my destination yet. I know it’s not the drivers fault, but the traffic, but being honest about timetables is the bare minimum.

Been charged £7.05 for two single fares, for less than 10 stops each way.

Trying to get this credited back is almost impossible.

Will be using the train for this journey in the future.

Went to Designer Outlet today and the bus on the way there, was very quiet and the driver was great. On the way back, there was a giant queue though I was happy to see a doubledecker bus. Once we got on, a guy right at the back of the queue went into the office to get a ticket. The driver noticed this but decided to leave him behind despite him shouting driver stop.
I do think this is better than the route 9.

Gaslighting customer service.

After having a bus refuse to stop for me late at night I issued a complaint. They shortly after responded that the bus I saw with my own eyes didn't exist and implied I was a liar.

First Essex buses are by far the worst bus company I have every crossed. They have tracked buses that just dont turn up and they run so late on average that the bus your waiting for just turns around. They shouldn't be aloud to operate bus company this bad.

If you want buses that dissapear into nothingness and make you late for work more often than not, choose first bus glasgow. Rubbish.

Builshit drivers
Never come on time sometimes even never come
Horrible service I lost my job because of this dodgers

First two weeks of using the 21 bus route in Bridgwater to get my daughter to school. 3 times the bus has not turned up and we've not even had to use it everyday of the week yet! The company is government funded inparticular for greener energy. Well there's nothing greener than a bus not running, what are they doing with that money?!

A big thank you to First bus during these difficult times after Glasgow fire,acting as an invaluable transport link with their reliable service.

The company has now decided to torture its passengers with a non-stop automated voice in English and in Welsh that tells you each bus stop you are approaching, when you are at the bus stop and then what the next bus stop is coming. This is a constant voice because the stops between each bus stop is often so short. It is VERY ANNOYING and has destroyed what was a peaceful bus journey and turned it into some hellish experience. You can't even talk to your fellow passengers because of this continuous computer voice drowning out everyone and making everyone miserable. I hope that whoever put these into the buses ends up in a Hell where they have to endure this noise riding around on one of their own buses 24 hours a day for a lifetime. JUST TURN THEM OFF!

The app is not up to date on disrupted service. I'm not even talking about the fire at Glasgow Central station which has understandably changed routes, but the changes to routes brought on by planned, long term an ongoing work at George Square are still not showing on the app even though the work started 2 months ago. What's the point of an app if it doesnt show the most up to date information?

As a disabled man who can no longer drive due to sight impairment and also can only walk a limited distance with aid of a stick or crutch was refused boarding with a couple of bags of shopping outside local shop at the bottom of a very steep hill due to having my assistance dog with me, driver was very rude , i would of had a two hour wait in the cold in feburary if it had not been for somebody helping me home, mostly good drivers but will not sack hate crime practicioner drivers , not first time had trouble for no good reason from this driver ,they have a number of bad ones who are allowed to abuse , not only me but some elderly users also

Amir is the best bus driver so you should give him a promotion because he was kind and was a good driver

Amir is really amazing and you should give him a raise for being really polite to his costemers