Furious at Stagecoach

[RantyDave]

Stagecoach Wellington are fucking idiots.

My daughter, who's five, catches the bus to school. We wait with her at the bus stop in the morning and watch her get on it. Stagecoach drive it to the school - two, maybe three kilometres and a similar number of corners. In the afternoon her mum meets her at school and they either drive back or get the bus back together.

Yesterday they failed on both occasions.

In the morning they dropped her off in the wrong place, leaving a five year old girl wandering around in the morning rush hour to get to school. She tells me it was OK because a car stopped to let her get across.

In the afternoon her mum met her at school (with my six month old son) and she was supposed to be having a friend over to play. Bus didn't show up. The whole entourage - two five year olds, a baby and a mum - had to trek home by foot. Good job the weather was nice, eh?

Fucking fucking idiots. I now have to find out what penalty clauses they have in their contract with the council and ensure they are enacted. Or, even worse, get the council to put some penalty clauses in. We need to make it so that someone very important gets very upset when this happens because at the moment they don't give a shit.

Arseholes. I have to sort this out before something really bad happens.

Dave

[Toaster]

Yep - it's all about cost cutting - hiring muppets to drive buses and they sometimes don't even know the routes. Training in many workplaces is a thing of the past. Profit is king.

[LardEmbargo]

cnuts.

Oh but if only we could encourage people to get out of their cars and onto public transport.

Maybe if there was a public transport service with some concept of service in.

I mean, other than "exist to extract maximum cash, from either captive customer base or people trying to do the right thing, for minimum possible outlay."

[bobsmith]

wonder why people don't use the public transport system in NZ.....

Besides the fact what you've just described is not rare, the bus drivers in general are unfriendly and the bus fares are extremely high. (well they're trying to change that in Auckland by raising fuel prices and parking charges)

Oh and what was that about people stranded on Island because of ferry not turning up and trains being delayed??? At least they're upgrading the train system by charging the whole auckland area greater fuel tax of course that's of no concern for people in North Shore who doesn't see a train anywhere nearby...

[HenryDorsetCase]

we were on holiday in Aucks and trying to get a bus from the zoo (pretty big tourist attraction, no?) back to town so we could get a bus to the airport.

Waited 45 minutes for a bus and that "helpful" fucking announcement board showed the bus we needed as coming soon, 9 5 3 minutes, DUE, .... delayed, and then that fucker didnt show up at all, and the next one was 25 minutes later: 45 minutes of my life I want back.

and the bus was a filthy dingy piece of shit. the driver was OK.... in fact most of the drivers we struck were OK.

my experience of public transport in auckland was almost entirely negative.

why does it cost $50 plus to get a taxi from auckland airport to the CBD, and $40 from our place to the Christchurch airport, and the fucking plane ticket is $89??? how the fuck does that work?

[The Pastor]

You let a 5 yr old catch the bus alone? Im almost 21 and the busess still scare me.

[peasea]

Try getting around Auckland on public transport.....it's a joke. In fact getting around Auckland is a joke regardless of the mode of transport.

I know some people at Stagecoach in Wellington and they're always shaking their heads in disbelief at what the big-wigs do.

I'm with you; if a bus is scheduled to arrive at whatever time there should be be a damned good reason for it not to and a backup vehicle to fill the gap.

Good luck.

[Delerium]

This is exactly why so many aucklanders are pissed off at the latest tax fuel hike. We are paying AGAIN for something we have already paid for and not received. So, the cost of our transport is rising, and there is no effective alternative. I wonder why we are getting frustrated?

But wait, itll be coming to a city near you too! dont think itll stop at auckland kids.. your dreaming.

[peasea]

we were on holiday in Aucks and trying to get a bus from the zoo (pretty big tourist attraction, no?) back to town so we could get a bus to the airport.

Waited 45 minutes for a bus and that "helpful" fucking announcement board showed the bus we needed as coming soon, 9 5 3 minutes, DUE, .... delayed, and then that fucker didnt show up at all, and the next one was 25 minutes later: 45 minutes of my life I want back.

and the bus was a filthy dingy piece of shit. the driver was OK.... in fact most of the drivers we struck were OK.

my experience of public transport in auckland was almost entirely negative.

why does it cost $50 plus to get a taxi from auckland airport to the CBD, and $40 from our place to the Christchurch airport, and the fucking plane ticket is $89??? how the fuck does that work?

It's called extortion mate.
It turns out that it's cheaper for my other half to operate a jappa shopping basket to get from home (on the North Shore) into town and back five days a week, run errands go see friends than it is to buy one weeks worth of bus tickets. She has to get a bus to Takapuna, a second bus to the CBD (and the bus company's ticketing systems don't interact) and she gets dropped at the bottom of town, a two-k walk in all weathers and for many months in the dark.

Her wee jappa takes her to the door (practically), keeps her warm and dry and she doesn't get sneezed on by smelly little hackincoughinspittinspreaders.

There's no incentive whatsoever to use the useless Auckland public trasport 'system' (and I use that word loosely) so another car has joined the daily procession.

Nelson, here we come.

[limbimtimwim]

I caught a (StageCoach Wellington) bus to and from school for 7 years. Yeah, sometimes they mucked up. And several times I felt compelled to write letters to them, and every time they were agreed with me and fixed the issues.

Usually the issue was a shit bus driver.

A crap bus driver matters not much a busy route, say the Karori number 3. However on a school bus route if the bus fails to turn up it is a major inconvenience for lots of people.

When I was at secondary school and the buses mucked up, I'd co-opt a few others to write letters as well so that they couldn't ignore the message. Perhaps get the other parents involved as well in writing letters to the WRC and StageCoach.

[cynna]

why does it cost $50 plus to get a taxi from auckland airport to the CBD, and $40 from our place to the Christchurch airport, and the fucking plane ticket is $89??? how the fuck does that work?

in auckland discout taxis go from airport to town for $30. just ring them and say you want the $30 airport deal and they will come and get you. i used to pay $26 for a shuttle until i found this out

[cynna]

Stagecoach Wellington are fucking idiots.

My daughter, who's five, catches the bus to school. We wait with her at the bus stop in the morning and watch her get on it. Stagecoach drive it to the school - two, maybe three kilometres and a similar number of corners. In the afternoon her mum meets her at school and they either drive back or get the bus back together.

um she is 5 and u let her on the bus alone??????? and school is only 2-3 km away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Pastor]

um she is 5 and u let her on the bus alone??????? and school is only 2-3 km away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thats wat I said.

Some people eh? when I was in primary school, this kid lived next door and his mum still drove him to school. SHe didnt have a job, she dropped him off and then went back home. Like 10m max.

[RantyDave]

You let a 5 yr old catch the bus alone?

Yeah, well, I'm starting to think that too. On the plus side about 80% of the journey is down our one street - no turns, sidestreets or otherwise and we know a good proportion of the people along the road. All she has to do is sit on it and chat to the other kids (usually) until it stops at the school.

At the fucking school. Sheeat.

Dave

[The Pastor]

Yeah, well, I'm starting to think that too. On the plus side about 80% of the journey is down our one street - no turns, sidestreets or otherwise and we know a good proportion of the people along the road. All she has to do is sit on it and chat to the other kids (usually) until it stops at the school.

At the fucking school. Sheeat.

Dave

Why don't you walk ur fat ass daughter to school in the am?