I used First on multiple occasions on a recent trip to Leeds with them basically having a monopoly of bus services in the West Yorkshire city, running both regular services and the Park and Ride.
I found the buses to be pretty generic for First standards, no different to what one would find in other cities such as Greater Manchester and Potteries regions, the only exception being London where the set-up and look of buses is different due to Transport for London (TfL) regulations.
I had mixed experiences with the staff, some seeming friendly and helpful, others seeming like they couldn't care either way - it was pretty much a half and half split, again this is commonly based on bus journeys with other operators and even First around the country, not just in the Yorkshire and Humber region.
The Park and Ride service seemed to be highly overpraised, it even has it's own bus stops around the city, these buses are much more expensive and you can't travel with these with a regular bus ticket including concessionary pass, it also seems to be a set fare along the route meaning just to go one stop (I was arriving in the city for the first time in 18 months, not knowing where my hotel was) I'd have to pay £2 which included a return journey I had no intention of making.
Buses ran either on-time with a delay of no more than two or three minutes, however, on a Sunday the buses were really really awkward and infrequent, with multiple services not turning up for 45 minutes in-between buses, and sometimes longer even in the late afternoon, the same also applies for a Bank Holiday. I understand it's Sunday hours, but the most I've seen as a gap in-between buses is 20-30 minutes (and even then there were other buses serving 90% of that route in that time), in other areas so for a city centre of such a large city with a population of around 474,632, that really isn't acceptable.
Issues with certain drivers, the comfort of certain buses and other issues mentioned including how infrequent the buses actually run, it is barely satisfactory Monday to Saturday too, I feel First are taking their position basically running a monopoly of buses in the area (Through my weekend in Leeds I only saw one bus route which wasn't operated by First or their Park and Ride route) for granted, letting service suffer, and prices rise and that isn't on.
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