Bus service is intolerable

How much longer do we have to tolerate the dire services offered by First Bus Solent before some brave sole plucks up the courage to remove the company’s franchise for Portsmouth and Gosport buses?

The firm’s inability to control its staff has become symbolic of the way its services are operated.

Once again I and my wife were left stranded at 9.20pm on a Wednesday evening by the driver of the Route 8 bus that sped past the Mother Shipton bus stop at about 40mph two minutes early – meaning that we had a further 32 minutes to wait for the next scheduled bus to arrive, in not too pleasant conditions.

To add insult to injury, on arrival the driver told us he was only going to Hilsea so we would have to change there. What he failed to mention was that we would be turfed off the bus at Hilsea Crescent not Hilsea Lido, so it wasn't a quick change, more like a 500-metre walk to the Lido to find the next bus.

All I was grateful for was that the next bus was run by Stagecoach, a company that treats its customers with much more respect and generally runs a far better operation.

The conclusion to this sad tale is that we arrived home some 50 minutes later than expected, bedraggled and somewhat chilled, not to mention completely fed up, having had our whole evening completely ruined.

We are constantly plagued by late-running services, which may be unavoidable, but there is no possible excuse for buses leaving early.

John Tanner

Cosham

We arrived home some 50 minutes later than expected, bedraggled and somewhat chilled, not to mention completely fed up