Golden Arrow Bus Services [GABS]
Reviews and Complaints

I want to draw your kind attention of the irregular bus service by the bayview/strandfontein line. The passengers face hardships since the buses are never punctually. The actual passengers have sometimes to have to wait between 20-30 minutes to catch a transport and conductors are generally so careless. we start even earlier in the morning just to leave work a few minutes earlier to catch at least a earlier bus, but it a waste of time cause the buses are never on time. this is unfair to lots of commuters and is affecting our personal life. my complain is for the bus services between 15:00 and 16:00 which is peak hour and traffic is really hectic. we urgently need intervention at this line.

Today, 20 Feb 2018 marks the most ridiculous services ever experienced with GAB. The 1st bus, i.e. 5:15 am departure from Belhar to Cape Town, was loaded beyond capacity. When the bus reached Sasal in Symphony way, no more seats we available and 20 people were already standing. The bus driver accommodated 59 standing passengers of which people we literally "violating" each other's personal space. The bus is scheduled to arrive in Town by 6:30 however, the likelyhood of thqt ever happening is 100%. The driver brings us to town 6:45 am every morning at the earliest. I strongly suggest, advise and recommend the following:
1. Schedule to put another bus on route, i.e. 5:20 am, to alleviate the burden of overloaded busses.
2. Take the current driver, driver is know by passengers as Mr Cape flats.
3. Ensure that inspectors get on busses to monitor and verify what pathetic services passengers receive.

GOLDEN ARROW... No words can describe to how I feel. I have been using your services for the last 7 years and I feel that we as regular passengers are not being treated Farley and we pay a lot of money to get the services we pay for. I demand that GOLDEN ARROW place an inspector in AZ Barmen Mitchell's Plain so he can how we have to wait for City buses. I understand that the basses are full but the drivers don't check, the people don't move up correctly so the driver just puts out his hands. This morning I had 7 basses drive pass me because it was full, but there was actually space. I demand you do something about this issue please.

Hi, every morning since the middle of January we have been standing at the bus stops for more then hour because of busses that passes us. It's believed that the busses are full but we can see that it's not full and that there is still space for much more people. We are 3 bus stops with people on the Robert Sabukwe Montana. Every morning we must phone and logged complaints but no difference. I hope to receive feedback with regards

Good day

Could you please consider using the normal golden arrow buses and not the small buses with fewer seats on the morning from Retreat-City via Main Road. Plenty of commuters get on this bus, almost at every bus stop along the main road. The buses are always full because of the limited seats and standing area and because of this. The drivers don't stop and continue right pass a;; the passengers. Most times you end up getting late to work waiting for another bus hoping that the driver would stop or you have to resort to spending more money, which you might not have budgeted for, to you use the taxi.

Please this is not on! Please go back to using the normal standard size bus in the morning.

The driver was rude to my wife and 2 kids while she was having a third one on her back. He told them that he does not have change for R100 for a trip from Khayelitsha(Bonjour) to Claremont they should get off of his bus to wait for (10:30) another bus which is coming in 45-60 min wait, while he should had drove with them to Claremont to arrange change or loose money there, I really like to be educated what is the standard practice if a person pays with R50 or R20 note and the driver does not have change?

Bus : 4786
Pay : 87669

At the 10th of December 2017 punch my ticket wrong while he was suppose to punch the interchange.
When I tell him that he punched wrong he said " he don't know and he gat family problems I was suppose to tell him where to punch" ..and I told him that's your responsibility to know your work and he started swearing at me.
A well human being apologize for his or her mistake but he was rude n disrespectful of this that gives a company a bad name "GOLDEN ARROWS BUS"

I will be glad if a company can do something about this. Offensive language to company customers mustn't be allowed.

Gooday how are you sir/madam
To whom it may concern
Hope this mail find you well
This is very strange and I think should be delt..apparently yest around 13:45 next to gattis I was waiting for Claremont bus...When I got into the bus the driver told me to give him exact amount of get off the bus..because I ddnt have change and I had R100 ..iam very disaapoibfed because I missed my job and interview coz the bus driver..U will take this to my lawyer because alot of ppl complain about it
Hope to hear from you guys soon

Been using this service for over 6 years now. I boarded the bus 4386 going through sacks circle this morning of 24 nov at 06: 17 opposite caltex situated in the Airport industrial area. The second i got on, this elderly male driver looked at me and shouted "what you want"?. I passed my money to him and said bellville thx. He paused for a while and looked at me like i was a piece of trash. I then asked him what the problem was and he shouted in a rude aggressive manner "where to"?. I then said bellville again. It became obvious that This man didnt want to help me as he slammed the ticket and the change on the counter. I kept quiet as such petty things are minor to me. What made me write this complaint was the fact that the driver pulls away and brakes at questionable speeds. He drives off without giving people enough time to board the bus litterally. He sees and hears these individuals trying to board the bus but he still pulls off. I myself saw how one guy tried to board and right before he stepped onto the step the driver closed the door in his face.. He takes turns so fast that some of the people standing end up on the laps of the sitting.

Hi, i do not have the bus number, however travelling from Tygervalley to Mitchells Plain is always a effort. Sometimes i need to wait 30 mins because of late busses. and most of the busses on this route doesn't want to go to Town Centre and i constantly need to fight with numerous drivers to ride the normal route. I suggest they put more busses on this route and maybe put some Merrydale busses for this route because as we know Mitchells Plain is really dangerous, especially when we get home from work. so i need to put my life in danger daily because Golden Arrow is being difficult.

I have raised my concern about the reckless and just plain "do not care" driving of the 4526 bus running up Durban Road towards Tygervalley at 6.55 in the morning. Unfortunately I did not have the bus nr but now I really hope Golden Arrow do something about this driver.
Stood behind another bus on the bridge over the N1 - just turned to the middle lane and indicators only came on once bus was already half way in the next lane. the bus is now in the middle lane and needs to drop off people on the left hand side.
So, what happened (just like the taxi's) just went over to the left lane - once again indicators only come on when bus was already half way in lane. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.
Driver just stopped on the left hand side to drop passengers - did not make use of space for the busses.
Hope this will be enough evidence to reprimand the driver.
Feedback will be appreciated
Regards
Hilda Mostert (hilda.[protected]@glacier.co.za)

I understand that the road was hectic on the 18 September 2017(due to the taxi strike) and understand that the buses was target, but two days in a row a bus doesn't arrive, that doesn't work for, as I had to arrange alternative transport to get to work.This morning a stood at my bus stop for almost an hour and half.The Upping bus normal arrive in Belhar at 06:30
I would like to know will i be reimburse for the lost of a trip for today 19 September 2017.

Golden arrow service is very poor .vie complain many times about the same thing and still I haven't received any feed back. When you call in the call center the staff seems as if they are not trained well to give feed back to the customers. Like today 11/09/2017 I called the call center asking about the delaying bus lady . I spoke to a lady advised me that she will speak to her supervisor. Which I stayed on the line and when she came back to me she told me the bus is delaying and don't know where is it .Now my question was if its delaying and I'm not far from the bus terminus where is it.and she couldn't give me the proper answer .Because the bus leave makhaza terminus at 13:30 and my bus stop is at lindela street which is 10 to15 minutes drive when you picking up pasangers and i stand at the bus stop till 14:30 and the bus was not showing .seriously this is annoying because my bus ticket has expiried and im left with 5 clips beacuse of this delays and on top of that its wasting my money and my time beacause i have to make sure if im not getting a bus i must get a taxi and the is a reason why i chose to use the bus.im always complaining and the will send me refernce numbers but im not bothering anymore because no one comes back to me even thou im paying my money and at the end im the one whos losing here and on top of that im always late at work because of golden arrow service

I got into bus number 2613 today 7 September 2017 time was 7:57am, I got in to pay as I gave my money the driver just pulls away from bellville terminals and there I fell on the step. Hurt my hand, two of my fingers are bleeding and all the driver tells me is to hold onto the rails. I was holding onto the rail but the driver pulled away so fast he dont even give u a chance to grip probably cause I was still giving my money.Not even an apology. Very angry passenger.

This morning 06/09/2017 I was waiting for the bus going to Durbanville at NY1 Bus stop.The bus arrived which was bus number 4482.I proceeded to get in and when I gave the driver my cash to pay she then the cash machine in the bus was not working and that I should get off her bus because there is nothing that she can do because its not working.There was no signature on her window stating that the cash machine is not working.Why was the driver allowed to proceed with the machine not working from when she left the Bus Depo and even the Bus Terminus.She had such arrogance and I was inconvenienced.No etiquette from the driver whatsoever.

Speeding down Robert Sobukwe road changing lanes multiple times without using indicators with absolute no concern of other drivers or pedestrians flashing cars at robots & blowing horn & taking over on yellow line & keeping race competition with another golden arrow bus.

this is the most unprecedented barbaric road behavior I've come across yet, this driver should just be fired he should be locked up for putting other peoples live in danger!

rubbish people like these are the reason us blacks gets combed under the same comb being defined as uncivilized.

I usualy sit infront, so as I was sitting an old lady got on the bus - she loooked like prob 70 or late 70's. So I just heard the driver shout' No mamma, no mamma-we dont have change, you holding up the line'. He kept on shouting at her to leave, and she have a R50. Im sure she woulnt have mind if he gave her R1 or less, She kept begging him that she needed to be at Groote Schuur That day - My heart went out and I gave her money to put with her other money Just to get on the bus. I mean like really now is that our society is treating our elderly today in this day and age?

This Golden Arrow bus on Monday 31 July 2017 instead of stopping at the red robot saw that I was still approaching the robot which was green my side decided to not stop and just carry on straight through the red robot on the corner of Capri Village and faerie Knowe. I then turned left and drove behind him toward Ocean View and took this picture. His registration is CA376192

On 26th July 2017 at about 6h29 in Bofors Circle Epping towards Goodwood opposite Viking Park the bus driver stop to pick up commutors. The driver than indicates while enterering the lane and NOT LOOKING that i am in the lane driving me off the road into the right ungoing lane. Drivers need to indicate AND LOOK 1st to see if its safe to go...
Reg CA99507.
On the 27th July 2017 at about 06h29 again in Bofors Cirlcle towards Goodwood opposite Viking Park the bus driver stops halfway on bus stop and half in road to pick up commuters. The driver just indicates and go without observing and a car before me had to hit dead brakes to give busdriver go ahead. Your drivers needs to consider other drivers on the road by obeying the Rules of the road. Before taking off and entering the road they have to indicate, Observe if its SAFE and then take off entering a lane...

Good day,

I wrote to Golden Arrow Information with a query, almost two weeks ago.

I am very disheartened that up until today (thirteen days to be exact) I have had no response from anyone. I am very disappointed by this because the least that a person expects, is feedback.

This was my query:

Good day,

I fell ill some time after my ticket was bought and had not been able to use or return it. The ticket expires today and is still unused. Is it possible that I can get another ticket, if this one is returned, please?

I cannot afford to lose this money. Please advise?

Thanking you in advance for your assistance.

Best regards,

Then I followed this up with another email:

Good afternoon again,

I sincerely hope that you are going to pay attention to my query.

I can assure you that this is a genuine request. I got sick even some time before this, and lost more than half of the rides on that ticket. I didn't bother to write about it afterwards. But this time my ticket is unused.

Please find attached my previous ticket (referred to above) to verify this. I really hope that you can accommodate me in this regard, as this was beyond my control.

Many thanks,

All I did was ask. When someone asks, the right thing to do is answer. This was not a complaint, it was a query. For someone who has been using the services of Golden Arrow for years and who had many opportunities to complain about things but never did, I cannot begin to clearly articulate how bad it feels to have this kind of experience.

Hoping that now, someone will pay attention.