Arriva Bus (UK) Reviews 

Buses were hot no air con, bus driver let me off 4 stops later then I pressed the button (had to walk 30 minutes Back to the location.) had the audacity to not apologize afterwards. Would give 0 stars if I could.

Bus driver didn't stop and drove past me, then following bus 24 minutes late!!! I complained about it and they dismissed it saying the stop has been put out of use as there are roadworks there, even though the bus goes straight through and the roadworks don't affect the stop as there is a layby and there was no disruption to bus route or change to stop mentioned on site. Bus drivers are arrogant and impolite. Regarding response why are you saying get it officially logged? I told you I had already made a complaint and it was dismissed, you don't listen and don't do anything

Hertfordshire SaverCard has moved to a new system that cannot link existing cards to a parent account. One of my daughters' cards is visible; the other is not, and there is no way to link it. I emailed to ask for it to be added manually - which is exactly what the renewal email told me to do, and what a member of staff told me to do on the phone.

The reply: nothing can be done, just make a new application.

So the customer absorbs the consequences of a change the customer did not ask for. A new photo, a new application, roughly eight weeks of processing, and full fare paid in the meantime when my daughter goes back to school. We pay twice for travel we had already renewed.

What makes it worse is the tone. "Just reapply" doesn't come close to matching the actual impact, and the fact that the phone team and the email team are saying different things suggests nobody has joined this up internally.

A system migration is your operational problem, not the end user's. Assess the impact before you switch, and build a migration path that doesn't create cost and friction for families. This one clearly wasn't tested against real customers.

Unhelpful, and no support offered.

This genuinely doesn’t even deserve 1 star.

I boarded the 102 bus to get to Wellington Bus Station, I’ve used this service plenty of times and never had any issues. The bus stopped in Priorslee and the driver got out of the cab and asked where I was going. I told him Wellington Bus Station and he told me rather abruptly that the bus terminates before this destination and I would have to get off before. I then simply asked why it terminated there because it never had before. I’d even used the Arriva app to check times and there was no mention of a termination. He replied “because it does, that’s why!” He then said “I don’t make the rules” so I said to him I didn’t say you make the rules, I just asked a straightforward question. He then said “and I answered your question !”

During this exchange, his attitude was absolutely disgusting. He started to drive off and I told him to let me off the bus, I was seething at this point. As I got off, I told him what I thought of him to which he reacted extremely aggressively, telling me to watch my mouth. I responded with the same aggression and he got off the bus, again telling me to watch my mouth but this time with some racist abuse thrown in.

I understand that I did act with verbal aggression but this was only after he escalated an absolutely nothing situation with his disgraceful attitude

I’m severely sight impaired and I relied on the bus service to get about, but I will never get on an Arriva bus again. I have made an official complaint online and I will be following it up with a phone call for an explanation.

An absolutely appalling attitude, service and a huge question mark over Arriva about the kind of people they employ

everytime i get the bus is its delayed sometimes roads are busy so that makes sense but sometimes the drivers will literally wait at one stop for 15 minutes it takes the piss

Bus driver was EXTREMELY rude and gave off a lot of attitude.

I do not drive and have to rely on public transport. Roadworks are understandable, traffic is understandable, but if your bus is an hour late or just doesn’t show up and you refuse to update your site, that is unacceptable, especially since people build their day around the times the bus is expected to arrive and depart. The website is borderline unusable. Half the bus stops, and even some stations are not recognised when planning a journey, the timetables do not update for anything, only proving a notice on few occasions, and the only way I can actually guess how long my bus would be by using the bus tracker, which spontaneously freezes. Today my bus didn’t show, I was 15 minutes early, I thought I could get a different service, the website said it would be the one I needed, but an entirely different bus showed up at the station. So I had to wait until my original service would show, by which it was the next bus, an hour later than the one I needed. There have been several times where I wait at a bus stop, wave down a bus that is scheduled to stop here and they move on, often when they do stop, I just get glared at. I rely heavily on public transport and there are quite a few other bus companies I have used, and I have not ever experienced situations like this with any of them. I would use other services more if arriva didn’t hold such a monopoly on where I need to go. The saying I would give 0 stars if I could is over used, but it really cannot be understated how much I loathe arriva, if I could all together avoid arriva busses I would, but it’s just not in the cards for me yet. My best recommendation would be to look at other local services, if it’s not far walk, carpool, or buy a day pass ticket via another service before boarding an arriva bus. It’s just unacceptable

Not only are they unreliable but waited over 30mins for a bus what was already late but the 127 bus just drove past the stop without stopping. What are they hiring here, seriously idiots run the buses and the company. Absolutely the pits this company is!

bus driver drive straight past me when waiting. i put my arm out for the bus and still drove past

I waved and showed for the bus to stop today 415 to Selby and instead of stopping they skipped me whilst I was getting ready to get on the bus. WORST BUSSES EVER!!! DO NOT RECCOMEND. My child hopped on the bus with a normal scooter driver said it apparently had to fold as he never had to fold it . My child said to him it is not an electric scooter as your only not allowed electric scooters in busses. This was the 2nd bus that came for us. Company is horrible as well as the drivers.

I waited half an hour for my bus, another not in service bus took up the bus lane. Instead of waiting for the not in service bus to leave, Bus 725 rudely drove away leaving 6 people waiting turned and watched us as they drove away. I am so upset as i waited an hour and a half for another bus to come for the time to yet again change adding an extra 30 minutes please sort this out.

Excellent service mainly used the number 12 to llandudno on time and very regular

This morning at wednesday the 5th august 2026 at 10:55am there was meant to be the 496 bus coming but it did not show up whatsoever, got late to work because of this then i had to wait another 20minutes and that got delayed too by approximately 4minutes, shame on arriva and its drivers, i do not recommend this company whatsoever, takinh the train would be better off than going with Arriva, do not waste your time and money, avoid at all costs.

I started a new job in Hemel Hempstead 4 months ago and take 4 aviva buses a day. Not one single bus has ever been on time. This service and company seems like a total joke to me. I have no idea when I can get home and I have to leave extra early in the morning because often 2 or 3 buses dont show up with no updates on the app or website. Aviva buses make me hate my job and ruin my work life balance. Shockingly bad

Slo/eng
Slo:Arriva prosim razložite logiko za tem da je karta avtobusa do škofje loke 3.5€ a vozniki zahtevajo da jo moramo kupiti na postaji kjer zaračunate 4.10€? Sepravi ste uvedli plačilo s kartico na avtobusu zato da nam vozniki težijo da jo moramo kupiti na postaji? Če pa se sprehodim 300m do tivolija pa jo kar naenkrat lahko kupim na avtobusu? Vozniki so s tem nadležni in vsiljivi in pokvarijo izkušnjo vožnje!
Eng: Could you please explain the logic behind the fact that a bus ticket to Škofja Loka costs €3.50, yet your drivers insist that we have to buy it at the station, where you charge €4.10?
So, you introduced card payments on board the bus, only for drivers to tell passengers that they must buy their tickets at the station instead? However, if I walk just 300 metres to Tivoli, I can suddenly buy the exact same ticket on the bus without any issue.

Never on time, never everytime. All you can do is stand and wait for next service...which doesn't turn up either.

I’m a customer of arriva because I don’t drive and therefore I have to. I travel from Blyth to Newcastle daily and I have to say, some of your drivers are disrespectful and are the example of lazy workers (their high bmi and vape culture is evidence enough!)

Their buses frequently break down or show up very late in which there is never an apology from the driver once they do show up.

An awful excuse for a bus company and therefore should be replaced by competent drives

I buy hiphop weekly and barcode not working and drivers rude behaviour am face like i print this ticket and this is my fault .. 👍

Buses could do with updating but the bus drivers are excelkent so helpful.

Camblesfoth resident

Worst bus service ever cry about pay but they are always late and take breaks at every bus stop what a joke bus number was 4615 and it was a 10A