“Well as for more taxis in bath we have too many at present. who are not only extremely expensive!! and as for customer service maybe the the council should send them on a training course. well the above article says it all no more buses and cars and coaches in bath maybe we should all become taxis drivers and may a dishonest livelihood.”

“Forgot to add this to previous post:

Bristol - London single on Megabus = 3.00
London - Bristol single on National Express = 3.00

Bristol pkway to Swansea single on First GW = 5.00
Swansea - Bristol TM single on First GW = 6.00

Total =17 gbp

All tickets booked online about 4-5 days in advance.

Travel within south glos, bath and bristol on buses only paid for by annual First Avon plus ticket costing 1400. This is the most expensive element. Although the ticket gives unlimited bus travel in Wiltshire, Somerset, Bristol, Bath and south glos, you have to use it a lot to make it pay. This is proof that First bus companies locally have no idea to market their services or offer competitive pricing. As a colleague in London said;"...if I'm paying 1400 per year for a bus pass, I'd expect to use it for an occasional trip to Hong Kong...." ;-)”

“There's little doubt taxis are expensive in Bath. I try not to use them. Bristol ones are cheaper and I can almost always negotiate the fare before using them.

Having said that, taxi drivers also have to pay mortgages, food bills, bring up families and so on. They seem to work very hard and tolerate a lot of nonsense from users.

Living in Bath is as expensive or more so than London with none of its benefits. Transport for London regulates hackneys and minicabs and as far as I know, does a good job with an even spread of services. Taxis are expensive in London, but it's one of many transport options, often competing with 24 hour bus services. In Bath, often it's the only one. Given that, surely, a more equitable solution can be found? Perhaps it needs more radical thinking like, for example, making sure that people with no public transport options have access to taxis.

Some time ago, I tried to book a taxi from bath to south glos at a busy time and was told I had to wait 2 hours. I walked the distance in an hour and 20 minutes. The 17 quid I saved paid for a return trip to London and another to south wales.”

“Why are the taxis in Bath so expensive compared to other cities?”

“Couldn't the Council set up a taxi rank outside the station (or threaten to if First don't reduce or abolish their fee)?”

“It must be extremely frustrating for passengers who have possibly endured an already arduous and uncomfortable journey by train to be left waiting for a taxi at the station. Especially when they can see empty taxis passing the station. Unfortunately, many drivers with station passes will fight tooth and nail to hold on to the unfair advantage they have. First Great Western will probably try to hold on to the £33,000 per year extorted from taxi drivers. Rail passengers are being put to considerable inconvenience in order that First Great Western can pocket an extra £90 per day !! First Great Western have also ignored Health & Safety issues such as the fact that a barrier is required at the front of the station immediately outside the doors to the main concourse to prevent passengers from crossing the busy forecourt only to arrive in the middle of a busy road junction. The barrier should encourage them to use the crossing points at either side of the station. If a serious accident befell anyone First Great Western might be considered negligent in not responding to this hazard. Though they did at one time erect temporary barriers, so are aware of the possible risk. They have probably had a risk assessment carried out, most likely, by an outside agency. Maybe it's a risk worth taking or the cost of a barrier is too much and they wouldn't want to break into the £33,000 - that's probably used to pay for taxis when the trains fail.”

“Well that explains why we came off a packed London train and had to wait ages for a cab! I expect they were all sitting on Orange Grove. Having paid for their cab licences the drivers should be able to go wherever the customers are, not have to pay FGW extra to pick up from the station rank. That is a ludicrous situation and should be discontinued immediately. If a train is due in then the taxis could all head towards the station, and in between they could man the other ranks. Makes sense to me! Oops there's the "s" word again!”

“I am a Bath taxi driver and can confirm that there is no need for any additional taxis at this time. Rather than pay 'experts' a substantial sum to tell you whether you require additional taxis why not simply look around and seek advice and opinions from residents and taxi drivers themselves. Furthermore, First great Western should cease the practice of issuing station passes to a limited number of taxis for a fee of £550 per year. The rank at the station should be freely available to all 113 taxis with a limit only on the number of taxis on the rank at any one time. This means that at times of heavy demand any passing taxis can pickup from the station thus better serving their passengers. Those taxi drivers fortunate to have station passes are provided with no facilities for the £33,000 annual fee paid to FGW but I suspect that rather than refund this and adopt a fairer system which would better serve everyone they will hold on to it and passengers will just have to live with any inconvenience, as they do on the trains themselves. When will the council stop wasting money and valuable resources needlessly and adopt a commonsense approach. Do what you are charged to do to the best of your abilities instead of contracting out. These are not life and death decisions that have to be made and if the situation changes in the future it is no problem to then introduce additional taxis.
Stop treating taxi drivers as second class citizens. We do a valuable job being paid only on the amount of trade we do.
Most taxi drivers take great pride in what we do and feel privileged to work in such a lovely city as Bath with a council that is committed to not only to maintaining standards but raising them.
Taking the rough with the smooth I only manage to scrape a living but I am grate ful that in these trouble times I am able to make ends meet.”

“Why does the council try to make us believe that there are too many cars driven by people who own them, but not enough cars driven by people paid to drive them?!!”

“I was a taxi driver for over 5 years and unless you work the nights you cannot earn enough to keep your head above water. Being a female driver it was a very dangerous job I had many problems at night with drunk men and had no support from the police - one officer told me "If you choose to do such a dangerous job dont come crying to us when it goes wrong". That was the final straw for me I sold my taxi and gave it up. I was always welcomed by the female passengers who stated it was a shame there was not a 'female only' taxi service in Bath - I myself think this would be a great idea. I know there is a firm in Manchester 'the Pink Ladies' I think it is called and they are doing well and expanding. I enjoyed my job but putting myself at risk every time I went out at night was not worth it. Taxi drivers have a very difficult job but I do not believe more are needed in Bath, working at nights I found myself having to sit around alot waiting for work - in my view there are too many taxis on the roads we need to lose some so the drivers who do it as a full-time driver can earn a decent income especially with the price of fuel and the costs of licensing the vehicles etc. There are alot of drivers who do it as a second job to earn a bit of cash and this is taking work away from the full-time drivers.”