Online Campaign Against Bus Company Gathers Support

A local bus user has started an online movement to force First buses to “clean up their act”.

Emily Denton, who has recently opened a twitter account (@StopFirstBuses), wants transport company First to take drastic action to improve their service. As of Monday, the page has gathered 135 followers in just over a week

She told me that “The tipping point for me has just been a driver who swore at a family with two young kids and got away with it.”

“The aim for me is to help people get their word heard and put pressure on First so hopefully they will change.”

Emily has also created a blog (which you can follow at http://stopfirstbuses.wordpress.com/ ), where she has documented her own experiences and the experiences of other bus users, aswell as detailing the daily progress of her campaign.

Emily believes that First have a duty to improve their service.

“Something really needs to be done; after all we rely on buses and we pay for a service that we expect to hold up its end of the deal”

The campaign comes during a difficult period for First where a number of students have expressed their anger at late buses and uncooperative bus drivers.

First have so far only committed to reviewing the setup of their bus services, but users online are keen for First to take more drastic action.
Twitter user @benmoore94 tweeted saying: “@FirstNorwich your 25 services uea so rubbish. are over crowded, slow constantly stopping and are un predictable when it comes to arriving.”

First buses PR manager made a statement to the East Anglian Daily Press explaining that “they are aware of the problems and are implementing change.”

But with this promise being made regularly on their Twitter page, students will want to see evidence of these changes before they believe it.