Guest editor Jan Vale writes to First Buses to complain about the poor standard of buses in Worcester…..

Good Morning

To begin with, your contact form does not offer a section for the following complaint; perhaps it should offer one that says ‘other’.

This evening (13/1) I was waiting at the Cathedral in the cold for the 17.18 number 32 bus up Bath Road. That was until a lady kindly told me that, despite the bus appearing on the Worcs County Council electronic screen, it was no longer available. She added that whilst it was also shown on the previous day’s timetable, it hadn’t turned up and when she asked the driver of the next bus, 30 mins later, what was going on, she learned that the bus had been removed from the First Bus timetable because, she was told, not enough people were using it; she had sat there for an hour in the very cold weather.

I am furious! First Bus already offered a minimal service to Bath Road, a main road area that probably has an all round population of tens of thousands of people housed on the various estates, and now it is worse than ever. Some months’ ago, it was written in the media that the company was decrying the lack of passengers owing to Covid but you didn’t offer a very good service before the pandemic; is it any wonder that passengers are not returning? It is a crap service overall – buses every half an hour weekdays, an hourly bus on Saturdays and no Sunday service. I am not surprised that there are reduced numbers because people have discovered that it is cheaper for two people to get in a car, travel in comfort and pay for car parking than it is to buy two return tickets.

Firstly, it is about time that First Bus and Worcs County Council sang from the same hymn sheet. There are no timetables on bus stops or if there are they are dated 2020; is this because you keep cutting the service? People can no longer rely on a company that puts itself first instead of considering the public that it is supposed to be serving and for which it receives subsidies.

I am fortunate to be able to walk to and back from town but many can’t and for those who have to get to appointments, they now have to use of taxis to be sure of arriving on time. You fail to provide a sensible service at the end of the day for anyone working in the city and for young people staying for after school groups. I do wonder if the people who make timetable decisions actually ever have to use buses. If you can offer buses to Malvern and Birmingham every 30 mins or so, and can run them regularly up London Road, it is about time that you took another look at the services that you are cutting.

Yes, I am livid and I am fighting for the people who actually need your service, rubbish or not and not just in the Bath Road area; you could do with some competition. When it comes to tendering, you push the smaller companies to one side, leaving them to pick up the expensive routes. It is as though you are running the whole service down and forgetting who it is actually for, people not profits! First Bus, get your act together, I have been on several services around the country and yours is by far the worst.

By the way, when and if your respond to the foregoing, don’t you dare blame Covid!!

Jan Vale

Comment by Cllr Louis Stephen: It’s very clear the current bus frequency and reliability is not up to scratch. This is a problem for our community because many people have no choice as they can’t drive or do not have access to a car. How do we solve this? We have a vicious circle where poor service leads to less passengers which leads to a loss of revenue for the operators which means the number of buses is cut leading to less passengers and so it continues. We urgently need a joined up system with reduced fares and a far more frequent and reliable service. Does it make sense to undercut the number of people using bus services by encouraging them to drive into town with our currently very low cost car parking charges? Time for the city and county councils to work together?