Complaint to First Group

Dear First:

I’d like to say that the issues raised within this letter have been ongoing for a while and it is not a one-off problem. On the 16th February 2010 my partner and I boarded the bus in Hanley to travel back home to milehouse. We boarded at 15:09 and arrived in Newcastle Bus Station at 15:24. At this point our driver left the bus and closed the door leaving us sitting on the bus by ourselves.

This is not only a neglect of our safety and your responsibility but a gross inconvenience and waste of our time. As a regular customer I understand that at some points during the day you need to change drivers and this is an accepted fact. What isn’t acceptable however is that a relief driver did not return to the bus until 15:49. At this point, a driver came and asked us to move from the bus that we were on to another bus in the depot. That was a period of 25 minutes that my partner and I had to sit with no indication of the situation. I’d like to know why this happened and what you have done to prevent it happening in the future. I would also like to think that I should be compensated for this event. I’ve attached a copy of one bus ticket from this journey to assist you in tracing the drivers responsible. If I do not receive a sufficient answer from your customer service department then I will be forced to take an alternative route to resolve my issues.

My second issue is with smoking within the enclosed shelters at the bus shelters. As a public place it is illegal for people to smoke there but they constantly do. Why do you not place signs to signify it is a no smoking zone and why is this not enforced. As the bus station is run by you, its your responsibility to enforce the smoking ban in public places.