A schoolgirl was left in "flood of tears" after being stranded at a bus stop for the third time in the space of just one month. Lois Bailey, who has just started Ysgol Maes Garmon secondary school, was left "completely alone" at Wrexham bus station last week after the QR code on her phone failed to scan.
The 11-year-old couldn't get the code to load on her phone, but was still able to prove she had a valid ticket. However, because it wouldn't scan, the bus driver would not allow her to board and she had to call her dad.
The issue has happened twice already this month, with the 11-year-old's parents now left "constantly worrying" that she will not get to school in the morning. Like many other pupils, Lois lives in Wrexham and goes to high school in Mold, Flintshire.
To do this, she catches the number 27 Arriva bus which takes her from the main bus stop in Wrexham to the front of the school. This is the only mode of transport she has to the school from Wrexham and her parents pay for monthly and weekly bus passes in order for her to make the 11-mile journey each day.
It may be the only option for Lois but it is not a reliable one, according to her father Matthew, who says he is "constantly worrying" about getting another call from his daughter to say she has been stranded once again with no way of getting to school. It is something that could happen any day, he says, and it is having an impact on Lois' adjustment to her new surroundings.
Mr Bailey said: "She's been left stranded three times in total, but on the third occasion she was completely alone - that was the worst time. Lois was waiting at the Wrexham bus stop on the Mold road. Her friends weren't with her and she was struggling to get the QR code to load on her phone. She was trying to show the driver that the ticket was still valid and that it wasn't loading but the driver wouldn't let her on, he just closed the door and drove off.
"She was very upset and was in floods of tears when I went to pick her up. She's only 11-years-old and has just started at the big school so it was already a scary experience for her. I can't understand how someone could just leave a kid that age. That's her only way to the school on time and nothing's changed so it could happen again any day.
"We're constantly worrying about it. We can't rely on the service and we're left wondering every day if we're going to get a phone call asking to pick her up. Arriva don't seem to take complaints seriously. You can't get through to them - they're just a big conglomerate with a terrible culture and their trains aren't much better either."
In the last month, Lois has been left stranded on two other occasions, her father claims, with the bus full on one occasion. On the other, it simply drove past Lois and her friends, leaving them with no option but to call their parents for lifts, Mr Bailey claims.
Emma Holland, Plaid Cymru councillor for Gwersyllt North, said that both of her sons have experienced similar issues with Arriva services in Wrexham. She said: "Unfortunately, the experience of this schoolchild is not an isolated incident. The area I represent is very badly served by Arriva. Recently the bus timetable was changed in Summerhill and the service was replaced with the 21h. Residents were not made aware of this until a couple of days after the event.
"As a councillor for Gwersyllt North, I receive regular complaints about the new timetable, which takes no account of the passengers that use it. Moving the bus departures forward by around 15 minutes has left Summerhill residents who work on the Wrexham Industrial Estate with just one minute spare to catch their connecting bus. This is on the off chance that the bus turns up at all.
"Both my sons have been left stranded at the Top Road bus stop and have been late for their 6th-form college and university. Other parents in the area are now forced to drive their children to school and college, due to the unreliability of the 21h bus service.
"When climate change is such a huge issue for us all and everybody needs to reduce their carbon footprint, a fit-for-purpose bus service should be priority. Unfortunately, with a multinational company such as Arriva in the driving seat, so to speak, this is never going to happen."
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