Bosses at First Bus in Bristol have apologised after giving out water bottles to new students at the University of the West of England with First Bus branding and the phrase ‘walking sucks’. The bus company said it was a light-hearted pun but ‘may have missed the mark’ after a picture of one of the bottles caused a backlash on social media.
First Bus has been wrestling with massive staffing problems with a huge rise in complaints that people waiting at bus stops across the city have had to walk because their bus has not turned up. And First, along with the West of England Combined Authority are handling a host of cuts to services and routes across Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset.
The branded water bottles were given to new students at UWE during Freshers Week - First run a number of buses that connect UWE’s campuses in Frenchay, Fishponds and Bower Ashton. An image of one of the bottles was initially posted on Reddit, and then tweeted by Toby Wells, the infrastructure lead for the Bristol Cycling lobby group.
