I'm wondering if it might be worth contacting them about this and warning them about certain journeys in advance. The SPA1 route is an absolute nightmare for timings - you will almost never see a journey run to timetable, and in many cases it will run several minutes early! But, on the flip side, what if the "victim" is a pass holder? What would happen? Also, for those of you who know about it (I shan't explain), what would it have meant for my "Day of Disaster" in October when a SPA1 failure ruined the entire day? Lastly, such incentives have run elsewhere. When Essex first introduced the Canvey Clipper route (now the 26), it had exactly the same guarantee, as did many low-floor routes in the early days of the technology. But I never heard any stories of them paying out.
Oh, and I
STILL haven't received my compensation for the "Day of Disaster"! I shall be making a rather angry phone call later today I think
Appendix: SPA1 evening/night service
Departs Grand Parade at XX40; arrives Bath Spa Uni XX04 (SU XX07).
Typical journey XX39; XX55 (XX56).
Departs Bath Spa Uni XX12 (SU XX09); arrives Grand Parade XX37.
Typical journey XX09 (XX08); XX31.
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More from
firstgroup.com on the matter:
� Regarding the Customer Promise:
- Money back will be in the form of free travel up to the value of the original journey. The refund only applies to fare paying passengers, concessionary pass holders are not able to claim through the scheme.
- Examples of when First would be at fault include, if a bus failed to operate because of a driver did not report for work or if a vehicle suffered a mechanical failure. NB First would not be liable for delays caused by any of the following: vandalism, security alerts, industrial action, severe weather, heavy traffic conditions, road works or road closures.
- A defined timing point is a place on the route where the bus cannot legally be more than one minute early, or five minutes late more than 90% of the time. They are usually, but not always, the places marked on the official timetable. Information at the roadside usually states whether a specific bus stop is a timing point or not, in some cases bus stop information will state that the times given at the roadside are estimated based on the time taken for the bus to travel from the previous official timing point.
� About the customer charter
First Bristol, Somerset and Avons new customer charter will be officially published in the coming months, it contains useful information about how to catch buses, information about the standard of service customers can expect from First, details of Firsts policies on smoking, customers under the influence of drugs and alcohol, the carriage of bicycles, surfboards and dogs, and information about how to contact First to retrieve lost property or offer feedback about services.
Now I know what the � means
It does specify that concession holders won't qualify though, which whilst annoying is somewhat obvious. I'll just have to help other students and get them what they deserve instead. After all, seeing First grovel and realise their operation is a failure is worth infinitely more than the pound or two I would get out of a failed journey!
Oh, and do people really need to be told how to catch a bus? You'd think it was obvious, but no :roll: What cannot be explained though is why all their previous "advertising" on the matter is
inside buses, by which time the passenger has already "caught" the bus!
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Whatever happens, I have alerted the Students' Union here. I don't want a situation in which we have to threaten the company with telling every student to complain every time something goes wrong, but if they continue to fail we may have little choice. The new timetable in April will be a deciding factor I feel. I know for a fact that at least one of the candidates to take over as SU President has suggested getting Wessex Connect or someone else to run the service, which is more of a threatening factor, but then that's not for her to decide - and is obvious anyway.