“Anon the people of Bristol want a service that is affordable, the quality of employment rights isn't our business. First simply fail as a group and without government aid they'd collapse becuase they're rubbish and as the Dragon's would say "i', out!".”

“Ricardo, all First drivers are provided with a float of £25 and if you have the first few passengers paying with Notes then you have no float left. Its not just a one off, it was virtually every day when i was driving buses around Bristol.
If people knew some of the truths about South Glos transport, then im pretty sure they would not travel on any of their buses and would actually feel appreciative of First Group. Thats not btter and twisted, thats from drivers that used to work for them and in their own words, First is a lot better to work for.”

“Conclusions after my last visit to Bristol...The bus service is over-priced, inefficient and the vehicles are not very clean.”

“Well having a bus service is one thing but if few people use it then it is just a drain on the council's resources. Perhaps our four unitary councils can join together and create a decent transport authority with the power to raise money and invest in new vehicles and smaller, more efficient vehicles, as has been done in Liverpool. It is no good chucking good money after bad - what we need is a thorough rethink and some real power to local authorities coupled with an elected mayor for the greater Bristol/West area. The best way to deal with private companies delivering poor service is to set up a better arms-length operation and compete with them, and involve users in the oversight. The current DoT would be terrified of this what with all the shady deals that go on when 'regulation' gets drawn up.”

“Anon I'm really sorry to hear how the public treat you. It's not your fault but people are so fed up with First I guess you are getting the fallout. It's not you drivers who are the issue it's your leadership teams. They are unbelievably greedy and fewer people want to use the buses becuase of this.
It's hard to understand how such a small faceless company can hold such an important city to ransom.
Please bring on our elected Mayor and soon!”

“Yes, public transport in this area is a shambles - because South Glos and North Somerset councillors would die rather than co-operate with Bristol.

We should have had a Greater Bristol in the 1970's but the Tories gerrymandered Avon County and, when that was abolished, Bristol went back to idiotically narrow boundaries.”

“"If you started your day having to go to the bank and get change because the majorty of your passengers could not be bothered to have the correct change first thing in the morning??"

And because First Bus can'be bothered to provide drivers with a float or introduce a card system similar to their Bus Card Plus?”

“George, do you hold a pcv license and drive a bus for a living? Are you aware of the fact that we are not just bus drivers but customer services, public information, change givers etc etc. Do you think that all we do is drive a bus/coach all day and get paid a decent wage for that? If you started your day having to go to the bank and get change because the majorty of your passengers could not be bothered to have the correct change first thing in the morning??
I had one passenger spit at me because the bus was a minute late in morning rush hour.
Now, i drive to work and a bus will still get there quicker than i can drive it so hows about we dont take it out on the drivers so much? I understand some narrow minded people n Bristol seem to think that all bus drivers are stroppy etc but as in all major companies that employ the amount of people that First do, there are the occasional bad egg's but dont tar us all with the same brush.
First do a good job considering the road system in Bristol and if you want to know a little trade secret, both Arriva and Stagecoach have looked at operating services in Bristol and both have deemed it as financially unsafe, even without First.”

“There's no getting away from it -you need a metropolitan transport authority as in London.

Living there part of the time, I enjoy benefits of a top class transport system. Even when several tubes and surface trains didn't run over the bank holiday weekend, local buses and supplementary services provided a bus every 8 mins or so, making it light work to get anywhere. Interestingly, when I lived in London 26 years ago, public transport was a bit of a joke.

Using buses in Bristol is like going back in time. I'm just waiting for the day when, having being kept waiting at Lawrence hill, a driver would put their head around the corner and say:"....just have to change them horses, all right?"”

“Here we go something tells me there must be elections due in the not too distant future? we have all known what a shambles and "expesive one at that" public transport in Bristol is, in fact I would go on to say it puts Bristol's reputation to shame along with the company that run it, as I have said in the past perhaps they should take a leaf out of Norwich union's book and re franchise themselves ~as say LAST Bus ?or maybe even crap bus Bristol.
After all it would be more akin to the service they provide, never mind the cost on it's own.

God help us.

Politicians please tell us and agrre with us on something we don't already know, time to wake up, wakey wakey.”