trentbarton land Reviews 

I use the i4 bus service to and from work a few times a week. The majority of drivers are grumpy and borderline rude. The timetable appears to just exist for the sake of it, they do not stick to it at all. They leave early, they come late, and often they don't come at all. They certainly do not come every 10 minutes as advertised. The newer style buses with windows on the roof were poorly thought out, in summer it effectively makes them moving greenhouses which is deeply unpleasant. They don't seem to be that well maintained and are very bumpy on the roads, so much so that it is painful on the back most days. If I had any other choice on the commute, I'd pick it over this sadly there is no competition on this route. There are one or two nice drivers who wait for you if they see you running, will smile and say hello, and let you sit down before they set off but they are few and far between.

The 3a bus regularly doesn't turn up, I complained and was told to use their journey planner for live busses but it regularly tells me there is no bus when there is and vice versa. As a disabled person this really restricts my freedom.

Four days in a row, the bus from Eastwood (Rainbow One) either didn't turn up or was over one hour late. Two of those occasions, the Bus drivers were incredibly rude to everyone.

Reading other people's reviews and they all say the same thing, really tells me that the company doesn't care and there's no organisation that pays attention, investigates or punishes the company for failing its customers

Honestly the scheduling could be done better by a bunch of gerbils in a trench coat. Two busses, neither for 20 minutes, due 3 minutes apart. This is frequent too. I’ve non ever known a more disorganised and less consumer friendly company

This happened in October 2022, but the memory has stayed with me—and I feel it’s important to speak out.

I was 17 years old at the time, waiting outside the train station in Burton for a Burton Buses service. When I tried to board, the driver refused to scan my ticket or even try to process my payment. Despite showing him that I had money in my account, he kept insisting it wasn’t working and wouldn’t let me on. It was clearly an issue with the card machine, but he showed no interest in helping or offering any solution.

What made this even worse was his attitude—he smirked, showed no empathy, and treated me like I didn’t matter. As a young Black girl alone, I felt completely powerless. I ended up waiting two hours for another bus and crying my eyes out. I genuinely believe I was treated this way because of the colour of my skin.

This was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life, and I’ve never forgotten how small and excluded I was made to feel. Burton Buses needs to take accountability and ensure their drivers are properly trained to treat all passengers with basic decency, regardless of their background.

Absolute waste of time, pretty sure the drivers are incapable of understanding how a clock works

Dire services, waited for 2 buses and neither of them turned up. SORT IT!

Buses constantly don’t turn up. Why they have the electronic boards at stops is beyond me as they cannot be relied upon. Awful service.

The Trent Burton is totally annoying couple with the V3 bus derby to Burton! I have never seen a bus route so unreliable and unreal! Today I was at the bus stop waiting for the bus and when it came the driver didn’t stop even when I raised my hands! I had to hop on the x38 and later book an uber in Burton to work! Meanwhile the V3 goes straight to my job ! After work I normally take the V3 but they didn’t come on time and later came two hours later! It annoys me so bad how inconsistent and unreliable the service is and I cannot wait to get my license so I avoid such nonsense.

It’s just god awful I cannot wait for my driving test to not have to rely on the red arrow for a way to work. They send old tin can coaches with no working air con no open roof top in 30 degree weather but the old mango buses with all windows flying open in the winter you either freeze or melt. You pay for a coach service and you never get the actual red coach with working aircon/heating and it sure as hell never arrives or leaves on time. Nightmare of a company who don’t care to improve because they get money from people relying on transport to jobs

The Harlequin has been running late for three months due to roadworks, half an hour or longer behind at times. Not the drivers' or Trent Barton's fault. Today whilst waiting for the bus in Derby, some passengers having been waiting for over half an hour, both of the two buses that cover this route pull up at the same time. We are instructed to get on one of the buses, which then sat at the bus stop for a further 15 minutes, whilst the other bus set straight off with no passengers! On speaking to Customer Services I was informed that the Operations Department had instructed the drivers to do this! No thought for the passengers having to wait another 15 minutes, on top of the half an hour or so that some had already waited, whilst an empty bus zooms off 'to try and make up some time as it was running late'. They'll never catch up while the roadworks are there anyway! 'The Really Good Bus Company' ... what a joke!!

2 buses in row canceled without notice.What a rubbish

Sorry,but I've got to agree with the bad reviews. I don't live in this bus company's area but I visit the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. I usually catch the 6.1 from Duffield to Wirksworth for the first train on the railway and today I decided to finish at Wirksworth and catch the bus back to Derby. On several occasions the bus to Wirksworth has been up to 20 minutes late - and it's only an hourly service - and today I stood at Wirksworth Market Place stop from 1705 to 1820 before a bus back to Derby turned up. That's it for me, I'll start and finish my visits in future at Duffield station, these buses are unreliable.

The buses are absolutely horrific. I’m surprised they haven’t gone out of business yet! Another transport company is needed to give them competition and then that’s when they will improve their service! Horrible service, buses show up when they want to and always late. I believe the drivers hate their jobs! You’re better off taking the train!

Got bashed by the bus when they tried to pull off before I’d got off the bus , Bus driver getting off and smoking next to bus , bus drivers getting off the bus and leaving it to run to itself , and a bus driver pulls in to go in shop and get a drink leaves bus running to itself , never run on time always cancelled

Stay well clear they are sneaky they take your money even when they kick you off the bus for your card declining and charge you different amounts basically they take money from your account unauthorised you report to your bank and your bank believes you and they still try and take the same payments over and over again even if they’ve taken it already absolute scam of a bus company

I was on the Kirkby bus tonight leaving Nottingham approximately 18:45 and the driver was driving like a lunatic. He kept weaving in and out of other lanes nearly crashing into a black car that appeared to have a child in the back. He was going into lanes that we didn’t need and appeared to be quite angry and making hand gestures at the car. Us passengers didn’t understand what was happening and was lucky we didn’t crash. I’ve had bad driving and angry drivers before but not this is the worse I have seen in your services. Passenger safety was not at the forefront of this angry bus drivers mind!

I recently contacted Trentbarton about which buses you could and couldn't use the Derbyshire Gold Card on. I received a very speedy, polite and useful reply from Lily, and later a reply from James with more detailed and extra, very useful information.
With so many encounters with Customer Services in all the different organisations I have contacted it is so refreshing to get the complete answer to your questions (and a little bit more that you didn't even know you needed) without any fuss. Thank you.

I get the buses all the time, they either don’t come or are late majority of the time! I got an uber as there red arrow didn’t show up i emailed and they only refunded HALF the uber ride?!?! my journey would of been £6 but ended up being £25?!?! it’s ridiculous

Get cash out if you want to use their buses!! I keep getting charged three times for the same trip when I use contactless, when I asked customer services they were extremely rude and dismissive!