Bus giant Stagecoach has said sorry to customers for sudden service cancellations which rocked the routines of many Perth residents on Friday, September 2.
And more cancelled buses were reported yesterday, September 5, this time serving Stanley.
Stagecoach pulled 36 local bus services, mainly connecting Perth city centre’s Mill Street to Letham, Tulloch and North Muirton, on September 2.
One additional service connecting Perth ’s Kinnoull Road to Pitcairngreen and back again departing at 3.45pm was taken down for the day.
The cancellations of the 1, 2, 7, the 9 in both directions and the 14 were blamed on a driver shortage.
The majority of buses not running were in the early morning, taking customers out of town back to homes.
The number 1 bus service from Mill Street to Letham and Tulloch lost 16 scheduled buses.
Despite it being Friday night, those considering a few drinks to start the weekend were left in the lurch to make it home to Letham. There was no number 1 service leaving Mill Street for the key residential areas of Letham and Tulloch at 9.40pm, 10.15pm, 10.50pm or 11.15pm.
A second bus serving Letham and Tulloch, the number 2, had 14 services from Mill Street not running on Friday.
North Muirton lost a good share too, with the number 9 not leaving Mill Street at 10.57am, 11.33am and 12.09pm.
The return run to Mill Street was cut at 11.14am and 11.50am, a bind for anyone looking to go in for a medical appointment during the middle of the day.
A Tweet yesterday warned that the Perth to Stanley bus service had hit a rut: “Perth service 34 from Mill Street at 4.55pm, 6pm, 6.55pm, Service 34 from Stanley at 5.19pm, 6.23pm and from Spittalfield at 7.45pm are cancelled due to no driver.”
With less than 40 minutes notice before the first expected departure was due, another handful of Mill Street to Letham buses were taken out yesterday.
Stagecoach East Scotland tweeted customers: “ Perth service 2 at 12.42pm from Mill Street, service 3 at 2pm and 2.45pm is cancelled due to no driver.”
Several people contacted the PA, before Friday’s mass cancellations by Stagecoach, to complain they had been let down by buses not appearing and drivers unable to say if the next scheduled service would arrive as planned.
One elderly woman said she had been left in tears, cold and tired having to stand around in the hope of getting back from a medical appointment in Perth. She stood for ages at Mill Street.
Not wishing to be named, she said: “I don’t have a smartphone so I didn’t know when buses were not coming.
“I was so exhausted, I have difficulty walking and I didn’t know how long it would be before I could get myself home.
“I don’t have a car, it was hard enough to get in and make my slot at the medical centre, but afterwards I felt utterly worn out, I needed to lie down.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Stagecoach East Scotland said: “We apologise for the localised disruption in Perth today (Friday), and for the impact this is having on some of our customers.
“However, we are continuing to run over 95 per cent of our services as normal in Perth and are working hard to confine any individual journey cancellations to areas with higher service frequencies.
“Where we are having to change or cancel services, we focus on making sure that we are continuing to run the best services we can throughout the day and evening.
“When services are impacted, we will let people know through our website and Twitter with as much notice as possible.”
Stagecoach added an explanation that it was not the only firm struggling to find staff and that it would be some weeks before they could provide a dependable service to travellers.
“A recent Open University report shows that 70 per cent of organisations in Scotland say they are currently facing staff shortages,” Stagecoach noted.
“We are actively recruiting for trainee and qualified bus drivers and also have a number of drivers progressing through our training school at present. It’s vital to take the time to ensure all new drivers reach the high level of professional standards we expect. That means those new drivers will not be out on the road for some weeks.”
