First Manchester

[Mayneway]

RE: First Manchester

(12/10/2014 22:03)John I Wrote:  There are quite a lot of empty First buses at the Sale end of the 41 particulary around tea time. Usually their destination shows - Sorry not in service! The timetable from Sale is a waste of time (Glad Stagecoach operate a decent service). Complain to First and what do you get - an acknowledgement and then nothing.

I do agree with a lot of what your saying. First and Stagecoach are both similar sized national operators but First seem very faceless compared to Stagecoach - you only have to compare thier twitter pages to see who has a better response to complaints and queries.
Don't get me wrong First have come along way in the last years but reputation sticks. They took over a failing business (Finglands) and went for the easy option of throwing brand new vehicles on to ex Finglands routes and the age old dropping fares and increasing frequencies but it's actually passengers habits they need to change.

Management may have changed but some things don't. Like the running out of service if more than 5 minutes late. Driver attitude is also poor towards passengers probably due to low moral, this is backed by the fact so many long term drivers are defecting to Stagecoach - probably because they see a long term future with them.

I think the fact is Stagecoach dominate the Wilmslow road corridor and also the student market in Manchester, they have years on First down there, they are good at what they do so why should students switch. I personally think that the comments made by EYMS management blaiming UK North for the demise of Finglands was exaggerated slightly. Yes they caused some damage but I think it's hard for any operator large or small to compete with Stagecoach at that level.