• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

The Big 3

Out of the 3 major UK transport groups (Arriva, First and Stagecoach) who is the best in your opinio

  • Arriva

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Stagecoach

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    54
Status
Not open for further replies.

Lewisham2221

Established Member
Joined
23 Jun 2005
Messages
1,472
Location
Staffordshire
I wouldn't exactly say this was off topic, in fact it is very transport related, but as it relates to more than one form of transport, here seems the best place to put it.

Anyway...
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Simming

Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
1,186
Location
Cornwall
Where Vermin in that list, everyone loves vermin, especially there wonderful new Vomits and Super Vomits <D
 

Max

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
5,455
Location
Cardiff
I've chosen First - HSTs on FGW, Hull Trains and a gradually improving Transpennine Express service are my reasons. And is is true that they have improved Scotrail too?
 

jonb

Established Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
1,607
Location
Essex
I too have voted First even though they seemed to have problems they have cleared them up and Hull Trains and FGW prove this.
 

Guinness

Established Member
Joined
13 Jun 2005
Messages
3,736
Stagecoach is good. Better buses than anyone else but trains hmm.....
 

AlexS

Established Member
Joined
7 Jun 2005
Messages
2,886
Location
Just outside the Black Country
I voted Stagecoach. Not much wrong with SWT, and I'm pretending Cross Country doesn't exist. Last time I travelled with Stagecoach Devon they weren't bad either.
 

Andrew

Member
Joined
7 Jun 2005
Messages
175
I said Stagecoach - especially seeing as I get a Stagecoach bus into town, which is always fine, and FGW and FGWL have worse performance this year than last? Apparently that's what you get with an "improved timetable" that will improve performance and reduce dealys, make it easier to recover from delays etc.
 

Guinness

Established Member
Joined
13 Jun 2005
Messages
3,736
First are crap IMO. Just have a MSN convo with Marv and you will find out why! :lol:

FGW is the worst Long-distance train operator. Even Virgin *XC* are better*

*According to latest SRA figures
 

bunnahabhain

Established Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
2,070
It's funny, people knock National Express Group (why aint they there?) for being crap at running trains, but look at Midland Mainline.....everything is going well for them, even the fact that they are now eventually getting one of the 9 Car Meridians into Passenger Service (finally).
 

Techniquest

Veteran Member
Joined
19 Jun 2005
Messages
21,674
Location
Nowhere Heath
FIRST RULE!!!

FGW prove that, they're one of the best TOCs around.

NatEx suck for NatEx buses, CT, 'one' and whoever else they own.
 

Guinness

Established Member
Joined
13 Jun 2005
Messages
3,736
FGWFan said:
FIRST RULE!!!

FGW prove that, they're one of the best TOCs around.

NatEx suck for NatEx buses, CT, 'one' and whoever else they own.

FGW has degraded over the past years..... How the hell they're going to get Great Western Franchise I have not got a clue......
 

86242

Member
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Messages
558
Location
Waiting in some far corner of the country for a 37
FGWFan said:
FIRST RULE!!!

FGW prove that, they're one of the best TOCs around.

They have to be the worst operater around! Living in Reading I use them all the time and I have never been impressed every trains are always late the staff at Reading are very rude. They can't be bothered to provide station staff at an ex Thames stations. First say they are "putting the passenger first" just to prove that that is a load of garbage while in a rush for a connection at Reading from a 180 and guard started getting of first and not letting anyone else off. I can't even be bothered to write any more about the CR*P operaterion or read it though to check it for errors just to show how much a HATE first group and FGW. First = "Transforming travel into Hassle" and what other operater names a loco after them selves...

Thats enough said on First and I can only hope that they get sacked...
 

Sprinter

Member
Joined
14 Jun 2005
Messages
321
Location
Walthamstow, London
Should of added NatEx to the original poll, they have a big empire of bus networks and train franchises.

Anyway, I voted Stagecoach. Megabus was a big decision maker, me being a loyal Megabus traveller. I also use Stagecoach buses most often as most of my friends/family live where Stagecoach is the dominant operator and I have had no major problems with them. As for Stagecoach's rail franchise, SWT has always been one of Britain's best franchises.

First, it's thier bus networks that let them down for me, but thier train operations are top notch. I am beginning to believe First's MD now in that "First is a rail company that just happens to run buses" instead of the logical other way round.
 

Lewisham2221

Established Member
Joined
23 Jun 2005
Messages
1,472
Location
Staffordshire
Well, my opinion (and as we seem to have moved onto "The Big 4" I'll also discuss NatEx)

First - Worst of the bunch. I have yet to find an area of the country (London not included) where they provide a bus service that is even remotely decent. Train wise, from my experiences they are fairly average, not the worst, but not the best either.

Arriva - TBH I only have limited experiences with Arriva, but they seem to be fairly average in all fields, buses and trains turn up roughly when they should, not bad but not brilliant customer service. They just get on with it basically.

Stagecoach - My vote went to these. IMO the best major bus operator in the country, based on my own experiences of them and the fact that they are the only major bus company that I haven't really heard complaints from anybody about. Train wise, people don't really complain about SWT and the Virgin/Stagecoach partnership is pretty decent, OK so they replaced HSTs (which in acertain somebodies opinion probably makes them **** no matter what else they do) but customer service is excellent and most service disruption is through no fault of their own.

NatEx - NatEx coaches tend to be fairly reliable. Some of the drivers can be really miserable sods but I suppose that arrises from the franchised nature of the services. Train wise they are a mixed bunch, CT fairly crap, MML fairly decent etc etc. Overall I would say they are better than they are worse. EDIT: Oops, forgot about their normal buses. From my limited experience with TWM they seem fairly average - not great, not bad either.
 

Guinness

Established Member
Joined
13 Jun 2005
Messages
3,736
Marv said:
Well, my opinion (and as we seem to have moved onto "The Big 4" I'll also discuss NatEx)

First - Worst of the bunch. I have yet to find an area of the country (London not included) where they provide a bus service that is even remotely decent. Train wise, from my experiences they are fairly average, not the worst, but not the best either.

Ah but First North Western - Now that was a good TOC! :D ;)

How the hell Arriva is losing I don't know.....
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top