Students have been left stranded because of a lack of buses, leaving crowds of students unable to board at Falmer.
Postgraduate student Armando Rankin tweeted photos showing the chaos, saying that the service is far too ineffective for the cost of tickets.
Bus boss Ed Wills says that new drivers are being trained, and the company is doing everything it can to improve the service.
Mr Rankin said: “I feel they should try to send more buses at certain hours.
“If it is not possible to send more buses and improve the services, then costs need to drop.
“It’s really complicated to come to campus and get back, nowadays. All buses that go to Falmer are always busy.”
His tweet, tagging the University of Sussex and Brighton and Hove Buses said: “You make my life so miserable.
“You charge me every day so much and the services are so f***ing bad.
“Honestly, cancel the bus system and rethink your complete strategy.
“We cannot be 300 people stuck at University of Sussex every f***ing afternoon.”
Another Coldean resident complained about being unable to travel to the supermarket between 4pm to 6pm as the bus is regularly too full.
Ed Wills, director at Brighton and Hove Buses said: “We sincerely apologise that some high frequency services experience delays or cancellations at peak times when many more passengers board buses at a similar time.
“There is a shortage of drivers in the UK, and we are doing everything we can to recruit more.
“This includes a 20 percent pay increase over the last two years. Currently we have the highest ever number of drivers in training.
“Our aim is to provide the best bus service possible even in difficult times.”
The University of Sussex said on Twitter: “We’re aware of the general issues with bus capacity to and from campus, and we are in talks with Brighton and Hove Buses, who are working to fix the issues as soon as possible.”
And this is why they should have invested (or reinvest in new ones) in articulated/bendy buses for the 25 route due to capacity per bus.
It isn’t only a problem for students. The 26 and 56 buses could be expected to turn up every 10 minutes. Now it isn’t uncommon to wait for up to 20 minutes and be overcrowded. I am 80 and I regularly find myself climbing on the upper deck as there’s no sitting low one. (I can’t stand for long due to a hip problem).
Why doesn’t the university s invest money in buying busses of their own after all they have built student housing around Brighton that we don’t want. Not only that some of the students are so rude.
What great idea . I mean students pushed all families away from.area . Why schools closing .
So too have there own buses even better idea. As there so rude. Never give there seats up
Bring back the bendy busses. They obviously did a job. While your at it, run the 25 express through town to, Hove town hall and George Street please
Not in education, I’m guessing. That’s ‘buses’ and ‘you’re’…
Rankins’ inability to express himself without recourse to profanity speaks volumes about the so called education he has received. If that’s the calibre of a post-grad then we really are all doomed!
There is a new e scooter shop on Lewes road, why not buy one of them
They’re banned off campus
Banned, yes, in theory.
Totally ignored by the authorities, however. No action from the police, guaranteed.
Bevendean suppose to get 3 buses an hour sometimes one disappears. how can the students complain about buses they get 3 buses that serve the university 29. 28. 25 which run every 5 to 10 minutes. oh I forgot they can walk down to lewes road can they from the uni
They also get the BH 23 and Worthing coaches UB1.
Doesn’t really matter if all the buses are already full and they don’t let you onto the bus as a result, even with frequent service.
Yes I usually have to get the number 37 or 37b and sometimes one doesn’t come!
The excuse I received for that was that the buses keep breaking down!!!
Well get new buses then!
Sort out this problem it’s been going o for far too long now!
According to the timetable there are eleven number 25 buses per hour plus the 28s and 29s. I have a choice of just two buses an hour so I don’t think that the students have that much to complain about.
And what happens when the ‘student village’ is built on Bennett’s Field? Students aren’t the only people who need to use these buses…
What part of your comment solves the problem of huge crowds left out by the bus stop at five o’clock? Demand is outstripping supply.
Hmm, maybe because there are a lot of people catching the busses on that route. If we need more than that number of busses, it begs the question why no one is using the railway that’s 20 metres away. Answer is a simple one, to expensive and the stations are in completely the wrong places. Maybe time to look at making that Lewes to Brighton line more like a metro with double the number of stations.
Some years ago you could buy a combined bus/rail season ticket, I think it had Hove/Falmer boundary.
Yes, I had one when we lived in Stanmer village. The boundaries were Falmer and Shoreham for the buses, Hove for the trains I now live in Barcombe Road, and use the Coldean bus stops in both directions. The buses are so full, it’s sometimes practically impossible to get off. It’s been worse this year than I’ve ever known it.
if all the buses are already full and they don’t let you onto the bus for many hours as a result,it doesn’t really even with frequent service. These students and yourself a both being failed by the bus service, there’s no need for competition.
More and more accomodation for students is still being built. This is for yet more students from two huge universities just metres from eachother. It inevitably puts more pressure on many local services, not just buses Should there be no limit whatsoever on student numbers? The imbalance is driving families out of the city and schools close or they’re told they must manage with fewer
staff, adversely affecting the children left in our communities.
I agree. We have problems all over the city with the buses not being on time or not turning up!
You have to question the mentality of these bus managers who thought it was a great idea to dispense with the artic buses. The 25 and a 25x used to run at the same time that cleared the stop easily, but now…
Shank’s pony? You’re all young! No wonder there’s so much illness nowadays. Heck, when I were a lass….
Getting rid of the bendy buses was a HUGE mistake. Anyone trying to get into town from Lewes Road from 4.30pm on any weekday can now expect an hour’s wait as packed bus after packed bus sails past them.
After seeing so many people mention the bendy buses, I did some research, and it seems double deckers can hold 80 passengers at the extreme end, but bendy buses (or ‘articulated buses’, or as I like to call them, accordion buses) can hold 120 people maximum. Considering that at falmer, a single 25 bus will come and be entirely filled and then another 25 bus sometimes comes straight after and is only half full shows that they really need to bring the accordion buses back.
THESE POT SMOKING , BEER SWIGGING STUDENTS SHOULD TRY WALKING LIKE WE HAVE TO IN HOLLINGDEAN WHEN THE 50 , THE WORST BUS SERVICE IN EUROPE REGULARLY FAILS YO TURN UP WE HAVE ALL THE CRAPPY BUSES FROM THE 1850S WHEREAS THE STUDENT NIMBIES HAVE ALL THE UPDATED ONES AND SIT THEIR WITH THEIR FEET ALL OVER THE SEATS AND CAN REGULARLY BE SEEN IMBIBING ALCOHOL WHICH IS AGAINST BUS POLICY
Oh yes the nifty sniffy fifty where the users pee themselves and on the seats and crap on the floor, whinge, groan and moan about F/A, are rude and ignorant lowlifes and think ripping up Metro’s is cool. Only used the service two or three times and got thrown off because it had to go to the depot for cleaning, no wonder it doesn’t turn up, wouldn’t send a cattle truck up there.
Calm down mate
Ed Willis needs to get a grip. Talk about divorced from reality
I am in the industry, I know literally dozens of ex B&H drivers who left due to the way the company has treated them. They now drive for other companies. So while you train new drivers, how about trying some retention skills!!
They’ve added an extra hour of journey onto the 28 service now it covers Eastbourne but haven’t accounted for how many extra people that would be meaning often the bus is not only 40+ minutes late if it even turns up, often you can’t get on because of overcrowding.
The students complain about not being able to get on the buses at their campuses but how about the residents who live along Lewes Road. People from North and South Moulescoomb and Bates Estate, who rely on the buses but can rarely get on them as they are already full up with students travelling between campuses, the city centre and the multiple student residences that have been built over the recent years. With even more accommodation blocks being planned, the situation is only going to get worse.
Bendy buses took 140 at maximum capacity (usually only on football days with marshalls) but still managed around 100/110 with students (many of whom don’t move down the bus). Those articulated buses were scrapped as exiting covid they seemed to be a waste of money from the then new MD Ed Wills who never saw them working in their prime. The problem lies within the senior management team who sit on their bums looking at screens thinking the number crunching works when in reality buses to the Uni have been cut back not only in passenger numbers from scrapping the bendy buses but buses per hour too after removing the 25X. This company is an embarrassment and fails to deliver the buses it advertises and the traffic commissioner does nothing about it.
The problem is that they will send about 4 busses in a row to sussex University and then none for another 40 mins.
A number of Universities run bus companies not just for students …and they make a profit!
Surely they should all make use of the cycle lanes that the Green junta gifted us with
Ha ha but the high concentration of lithium batteries might constitute a H&S issue
I’m never able to get onto a bus from my home between 2:45-4pm anymore. So when I need to go out between those times (which is at least once a week) I have to instead try to leave at 2pm just so I can get on a bus. It’s insane. Get the students separate buses. I don’t think it’s fair that people who have lived here their whole lives are now suffering because of it.
Was never an issue when there was proper competition for bus routes.
Give yellow bus that route, they seem to have little problem getting drivers
I work nights and have to catch a bus hour and 45 min before I start work as 25 and 24 buses often full and the have to walk rest of the way as 25 now only go to old steine. Used to go to Palmers Square. Students don’t give up the disabled seats for people less able to stand, I cannot climb the stairs as bad knees, but often have to stand when I am able to even get on a bus
I struggle every morning to get to school on-time. Buses come late and most the time full, good thing I live around Coldean at least I walk to school.
Sadly it’s not just the students suffering many disabled/ abled passengers are left waiting for up to an hour sometimes for buses along the south coast road With services 12,12A12X 14 14C not turning up or running extremely late not running a full service often being cut off at sealife centre or beginning at sealife centre.
And if there has been an accident on the road it can take up to 2-3 hours to get home which in a car is 20 minutes drive. You speak to car drivers about getting a bus to cut pollution and they will laugh in your face because they no Brighton &Hove bus company are not providing a good regular service and prices still increase!! Think it’s about time a rival bus company take over
No shortage of bus drivers in the UK, drivers are quitting Brighton & Hove because of the poor conditions and working culture imposed by management in the depots, and the rest get sacked for the pettiest of things. You can’t comment on a social media post these days without getting dragged in to the office at B&H, and the public wonder why drivers are miserable AF. B&H are still making huge profits though, which doesn’t look good when they provide such bad service to the public, hence why they’ve decided to blow tens of millions of pounds rebranding and repainting the entire fleet, to lower net profit.
Why does this not surprise me well done for speaking up 👍
I work at a school near the university and am constantly late at the moment.
I have waited over 35 minutes for a 25 which used to come every 5minutes
Public Transport should be encouraged so we don’t drive our cars through a busy city but I can’t afford to be late 4 out of 5 days a week.