Villagers have been frustrated as they say bus services are often being cancelled. Some Keyworth residents said they feel the Trentbarton bus service, The Keyworth, is at times unreliable and are disappointed in the number of services being affected, including almost 40 on Monday, October 17.
The irregularity of services is causing problems for some of the village's elderly residents who no longer drive, and use the bus to get to appointments. The delays and cancelled services are causing people to be late and miss connections.
Many residents say that they wait for buses to arrive, and although the service is expected every 15 minutes, it can be closer to an hour of waiting. Other bus users have also said that once the bus does arrive, it is often followed by another bus of the same service rather than that bus waiting to spread out the services.
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Retired, Caryl Gill, 86, said: "We are quite lucky to have a service that is every 15 minutes, but I wonder if it would be better to have one every half an hour and have something more reliable. People are getting obviously fed up with it.
"We rely on a good service, it's a good way of getting in to West Bridgford and Nottingham for a bit of a shop." When asked about her views on the bus cancellations, Janet Derrick, 80, said: "It's alright but if you have an appointment in town or at hospital, then you can't rely on them.
"I don't use them very often. That's the only service we have in the village and the village is growing as will with this estate."
Janet added that "sometimes a couple come at once" and explained this can be especially frustrating for those waiting. A 68 year old who did not wish to be named said: "I think they do cancel some, but it always looks worse as they put a long list online.
"I know that the people who commute have been cross and I think what I like to call the OAP bus that I use at 9:30, sometimes they have problems with those. Apparently they had a shortage of drivers."
Retired, Ann Coultas, 82, has also noticed multiple buses arrive together. She said: "They say that they have a shortage of drivers but then you can wait for an hour, and then three will come at once.
"So I can't understand how it is a problem. They all come at once, more often than not there are at least two and they don't even sort of think lets wait.
"It's crazy." Retired Elly O'Connor, 74, said: "We have had several issues."
I've had to wait three quarters of an hour instead of 15 minutes. It's terrible, it's really bad and we rely on it here. I love going into town but it is not good. When we do get the bus, the drivers are always lovely and I think they cant help it if there's a shortage."
When asked about the cancellations and delays, a 56 year old who did not wish to be named said: "There's been a lot of that. I know that they have got predicted times for the buses and very often it will say one is coming and then it will vanish.
He added: "I've heard a lot of people groaning about it, but I don't use it every day."
Trentbarton shares regular updates on its twitter feed about cancelled services. The company has previously highlighted issues with having a shortage of drivers.
A trentbarton spokesperson said: “We apologise to customers for withdrawing some journeys on the keyworth due to the ongoing national shortage of bus drivers.
“We were particularly hard hit by a shortage of drivers for the route on Monday, but we do aim to run as many of our scheduled services as possible each day.
“The good news is that our driver recruitment campaign is going well, and more drivers are joining the teams each week.
“After successive pay rises our average driver salary is now more than £30,000 and the job is proving attractive to more people looking for a team-based role that comes with extensive training, flexible working patterns, a pension and other benefits.
“We are running more than 95 per cent of scheduled mileage, thanks to our hard-working drivers and their support teams who are dedicated to helping our customers travel.
“Every day we announce via social media which services are not running at which times, to be upfront about cancellations so customers can plan journeys.
“Our thanks go to our customers for their understanding and patience whilst we tackle the driver shortage.”
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