How bad are Sheffield bus drivers?

[fozzybear210 10]

there's another stop literally yards round the corner! get rid of this one outside the depot as it CAUSES traffic! i thought buses were a means of public transport which are supposed to cut congestion? bus driver by any chance??

 

And then that will cause more traffic when the 83, 87 and 265 are changing over at the same time. And when people complain about the traffic, we can say it was down to a certain forum troll who didn't like queuing at the lights because a bus was parked up changing drivers. And yes unfortunately I am a bus driver.

[mort 10]

keep it civil please

[LastResort 10]

Can't say I've noticed that Sheffield bus drivers are particularly bad drivers, but a lot of them are pretty rude and snappy. I've just returned from my summer visit to Sheff to see the aged parents and I must say that I had my head bitten off several times by drivers when I didn't happen to know the right fare and had ask how much it would cost from A to B. When I first arrived, I was getting the 14 bus from Sheffield Interchange to Wisewood and the only person getting off the bus at the Interchange was a woman with a severely disabled child in one of those wheelchairs for children. The driver point blank refused to put the ramp down for her because he said that the wheelchair was a "push-chair" and that "no way" was he putting the ramp down for just a push-chair! Granted, the kiddie wheelchair did look a bit like a large pushchair and to give the driver due credit, he immediately got out of his cab to help the lady lift the wheelchair/push-chair off the bus, but by arguing the toss with her, he made the woman feel flustered and embarrassed and he left me wondering why he didn't just use a few customer-service skills and put the bloody ramp down for her in the first place?

[AndrewC 307]

Here'a good one from this morning.

 

I turned the corner at Broadfield pub to see a Stagecoach pull up and let someone off. He doesn't pull away so I manage to catch it but the reason he has stopped is because he's fiddling with some timetable and a red stamp of some kind (can anyone shed any light?) but I get on and he asks what I want fare-wise and I buy a day-rider. He sells it to me no problem. I sit down.

 

Another couple of minutes pass and already a few mumblings are starting to drift around the passengers. Eventually he gets up out of his cabin with his timetable and starts looking round the stop. He pulls out his mobile phone and starts calling someone outside. We can't hear him. Another 3-5 minutes pass (bear in mind this is about 8.15 or later - people need to get to work) and some people are about get up and ask what's going on when a girl steps on the bus; he responds by saying "Sorry love, I'm not in service. I'm waiting for the next one to come down so I can transfer this lot over"

 

Gobsmacked. No idea what was wrong with the bus and he didn't once turn around and even suggest anything was up and certainly hadn't informed us that we would be transferred.

 

As the bus was 70% capacity and the next one would still be 10 minutes away and probably 70% full itself, I cut my losses and got a First bus in to town where I got an 88 for the rest of my journey.

 

Broken bus or other reasonable reason for being out of service? Irritating but sometimes unavoidable.

 

Getting absolutely no information for 5-10 minutes at morning rush-hour? Ridiculous.

 

I'll be sending an email and can't wait for my free Dayrider from Stagecoach to make up for their p*ss-poor communication!

 

 

 

Stagecoach have the best busses and fares and are far more consistently good compared to First but they don't half let themselves down sometimes IMO with infrequent services and the occasional really bad customer service.

[fozzybear210 10]

Here'a good one from this morning.

 

I turned the corner at Broadfield pub to see a Stagecoach pull up and let someone off. He doesn't pull away so I manage to catch it but the reason he has stopped is because he's fiddling with some timetable and a red stamp of some kind (can anyone shed any light?) but I get on and he asks what I want fare-wise and I buy a day-rider. He sells it to me no problem. I sit down.

 

Another couple of minutes pass and already a few mumblings are starting to drift around the passengers. Eventually he gets up out of his cabin with his timetable and starts looking round the stop. He pulls out his mobile phone and starts calling someone outside. We can't hear him. Another 3-5 minutes pass (bear in mind this is about 8.15 or later - people need to get to work) and some people are about get up and ask what's going on when a girl steps on the bus; he responds by saying "Sorry love, I'm not in service. I'm waiting for the next one to come down so I can transfer this lot over"

 

Gobsmacked. No idea what was wrong with the bus and he didn't once turn around and even suggest anything was up and certainly hadn't informed us that we would be transferred.

 

As the bus was 70% capacity and the next one would still be 10 minutes away and probably 70% full itself, I cut my losses and got a First bus in to town where I got an 88 for the rest of my journey.

 

Broken bus or other reasonable reason for being out of service? Irritating but sometimes unavoidable.

 

Getting absolutely no information for 5-10 minutes at morning rush-hour? Ridiculous.

 

I'll be sending an email and can't wait for my free Dayrider from Stagecoach to make up for their p*ss-poor communication!

 

 

 

Stagecoach have the best busses and fares and are far more consistently good compared to First but they don't half let themselves down sometimes IMO with infrequent services and the occasional really bad customer service.

 

So you are going to complain about it just so you can get a free day ticket? How pathetic.

[AndrewC 307]

So you are going to complain about it just so you can get a free day ticket? How pathetic.

 

Chill out dude, it was a joke. You don't know me and you can't read in to my 'tone' using just text on a page. Relax and don't go flying off the handle so easily!

 

I wouldn't complain *just* to get a free ticket, but I would complain when I've suffered bad service. Now I can't imagine a 10 minute delay and frustration caused by terrible communication skills is likely to get me anything other than a sorry (if I'm lucky) but why shouldn't Stagecoach try and appease me? Right now I'm thinking to myself, "First have never pulled that one on me" and Stagecoach should be concerned by that.

 

p.s., I am a happy-go-lucky, fairly relaxed young man who doesn't tend to complain or make a fuss except for the odd venting of anger on internet forums when something has really ****** me off! I'm a nice guy with a lot of good friends who respect me and enjoy my company. So now you know a bit more about me, do you feel a little ashamed with yourself for calling a complete stranger who you've never met, 'pathetic' based on one throwaway comment?

Edited July 23, 2012 by AndrewC

[fozzybear210 10]

Chill out dude, it was a joke. You don't know me and you can't read in to my 'tone' using just text on a page. Relax and don't go flying off the handle so easily!

 

I wouldn't complain *just* to get a free ticket, but I would complain when I've suffered bad service. Now I can't imagine a 10 minute delay and frustration caused by terrible communication skills is likely to get me anything other than a sorry (if I'm lucky) but why shouldn't Stagecoach try and appease me? Right now I'm thinking to myself, "First have never pulled that one on me" and Stagecoach should be concerned by that.

 

p.s., I am a happy-go-lucky, fairly relaxed young man who doesn't tend to complain or make a fuss except for the odd venting of anger on internet forums when something has really ****** me off! I'm a nice guy with a lot of good friends who respect me and enjoy my company. So now you know a bit more about me, do you feel a little ashamed with yourself for calling a complete stranger who you've never met, 'pathetic' based on one throwaway comment?

 

Ok, point taken and I apologise . Although there are people out there who will complain about anything just to try and get a free ticket. The bus is a minute late, the driver has farted in the cab......etc.

[TaxiBaz 10]

Taxi's the other day, bus drivers today !

 

Can someone enlighten me, If I name/shame the local pizza/chip shop

for delivering garbage, my post get's reported and/or pulled.

Yet were allowed to pull down First/Stagecoach etc

 

Just asking ;-)

[web1 10]

Maybe you should let the bus pull out rather than breaking your balls to try and get in front of it. It is a long vehicle afterall and if you did that on your driving test you would be failed.

 

Where did i say anything to this effect?

 

And half the bus drivers wouldnt pass a test driving the way they do.

 

Oh and i am an amazing driver.

[clarkepeter 10]

i got on a number 51 the other week and it was raining very heavy the driver was speeding all the way into town then when we got to the crucible he got off to make a fone call on his mobile and we had to wait a good five mins as he was that early

[Joe9T 10]

well i'm a good bus driver as many others are. shall we start a thread about how bad car drivers are in sheffield compared to other parts of the country, they seem worse here than anywhere else or is it just easier to start a bus driver bashing thread:roll:

 

Two wrongs don't make a right and i'm not a car driver by the way!

 

You should NOT jump a RED light, whether you be driving a car or a bus for that matter!

[dan1986 10]

From experience First drivers are very good, Stagecoach drivers especially ther younger ones have suicidal tendencies and thanks to the latter I am now disabled following an accident on one of their buses.

 

The smaller 31 and S6A buses are great, shame there's not more of them.

 

As for taxi drivers don't get me started on them.... the worst ones are those who can't speek Engleesh and previously drove in stock car races in Mumbai

 

you mean the ones that can not speak ENGLISH