I have been to Swindon,Bath & Bristol today what a contrast. Both main operaters in Swindon operating smart buses and in particular Stagecoach Gold buses that were gleaming and although still quite new looked as if they were going to be cared for.
Then you go to Bath the main service to Bristol Direct worked by some 59 deckers and mainly ex London 53 plates. Well they really looked scruffy after Swindon. Most other Bath buses also very scruffy with diesel stains down the sides of many buses where they had been overfilled and no attempt to clean up afterwards.
This trend also continued in Bristol and even the new Metro Buses & 17/67 plates on the new services to Yate were nowhere near the condition of any Swindon bus.
No wonder First are such a mess because this is suppose to be one of the better companies.
Roll on when Go ahead or Stagecoach can get their hand on some of these First companies and give them a good shake up.
Rant Over
Some fair points though perhaps a tad harsh in others.
Stagecoach Swindon has a very smart set of Gold deckers with the 66 plates (55) and 18 plates (S6). Not been on the S6 ones yet but the 55 examples are superb. However, you're seeing the fleet at its best. Should you have visited a couple of months ago and the 61 plates were still on the S6 (or 66 as it was then), then you'd have seen some very battle scarred vehicles with scuffs, ill matched panels, peeling vinyls etc. I had one at Easter that was taking in water like no-ones business on the front offside dome. Also, whilst the double deck fleet is quite good, it is balanced out by some very old and tatty Darts. I did a trip out on Stagecoach a few months ago with a big circular route from Trowbridge (train to BPW) and then via Parkway, Dursley, Cheltenham, Ciren, Swindon and back to Trowbridge and had a very peachy ex Busways Dart from Ciren to Swindon. Yes, it would doubtless be due for withdrawal soon (think it's still going though) but it was really faded internally and out and was very rough.
The comparison with FWoE is interesting and certainly with Bath, the presentation is often pretty terrible. As you say, diesel stains are a common badge of honour. Bristol is invariably better though even with a noticeable difference between LH and HE depots. Where First get it right, they really have improved - the refurbished Discover services, the relaunched Mendip Explorer services, etc.
However, there are a great many areas that they need to resolve and that is without the issues of crippling traffic congestion AND continuing driver shortages. The X39 is a long running bugbear of mine and yes, I cannot fathom how it hasn't got better vehicles on it than 09 plate B9TLs. All right as a stop gap to manage the growth in patronage but that's two years at least. I could get into a whingeathon about the other problems but then again, the operations are moving in the right direction. The issue with driver shortages is very regrettable and they should be looking at some other measures to help ease the pressure. Congestion is the killer at the moment and is palpably worse. Perhaps worth another look in a years' time and see how things have changed.