First Manchester

[Mayneway]

RE: First Manchester

(26/08/2012 18:14)Valandil Wrote:  I have never had a good experience with this company (mainly due to the 1hr40mins their bus takes to do Warrington -> Manchester and the generally bad-tempered nature of drivers which we Warrington folk just aren't used to!) but the other day I experienced probably the worst journey I have ever had.

The worst offence was not stopping to drop off passengers at a stand in Stockport bus station, and instead parking the bus up and then letting us off. I had to walk an old man across a bus lane, and hope for the best that nothing would hit us. Add to this a number of other more minor offences, such as massively overshooting bus stops, driving off before passengers could board, and closing the doors on me as I tried to board the bus. It was just surreal: I have never seen a driver do these things before.

I do understand that the particular route (22) is horrible and the amount of time spent driving solidly is long to say the least, but this is no excuse. I have never reported a driver before, but this will unfortunately be the first time that I just have to do so.

On an unrelated note, the newish livery looks very smart, and their Geminis are very good and have sound interiors.

Firstly this is nothing new.
In Ashton most of the drivers at Pioneer depot insist on dumping passengers outside the bus station on the main road (a very busy main road with 2 lanes of very busy traffic!), and even worse still some lazy drivers insist on dumping passengers in the layover bay, despite the fact there's big red signs there saying No Alighting.
I've complained several times to First about the issue and normally after a 3-4 week wait they write back saying it shouldn't be happening and that my comments have been passed onto depot manager at Dukinfield. A year on, and 4 complaints later and it's still happening daily.

Today in the space of 5 mins I witnessed a 168 dropping in the layover bay and also a very busy 409 - yes a 409 with all the new fancy branding!

I must add, this happened once on a Stagecoach service I was travelling on. I complained to them regarding the issue and the very next day got a personal email back from the depot manager apologising and telling me it shouldn't have happened and that it wont happen again, and to be fair, I've never seen a Stagecoach bus alight anywhere other than in the bus station at the relavent stands.

Rant over