COLIN CAMPBELL: Problems still exist, but bus service is no longer the shambles it was
This time last year if you went to catch a bus in Inverness ideally you’d have brought along a deckchair.
It might have made a long, frustrating wait for one to arrive slightly more tolerable.
And it would have prevented the bus stop scenario I witnessed in Scorguie of one well-dressed and completely sober woman, exhausted by the heat, sitting down and then stretching out on the pavement. This happened while I was sitting nearby on a patch of grass under a tree.
I’d been there waiting for nearly an hour, and she’d arrived before me.
Twelve months on and not every cloud may have disappeared but I’ve found there’s been a blue skies transformation on the buses. The service is greatly improved from what it was before.
This is not a view shared by everyone. One recent correspondent to the Courier complained about the “chaotic” service. I noted this. But I also noted how it’s been for me. And the last dozen buses I used all appeared on schedule and on time.
Twelve months ago it’s quite likely none would have appeared on time, and some wouldn’t have appeared at all.
The Courier also reported that 100 had been cancelled over a two-day period due to driver shortages. So problems and very bad days clearly are still happening.
But over the past few weeks the service has been nothing like the hopelessly unreliable shambles it was last summer, autumn and winter.
The last time I referred to that fiasco I said it would take a long time for my faith to be restored. But now, as far as I’m concerned, that has happened. I’ve given up routinely shunning buses. In fact, I recently got one up to Raigmore for a hospital appointment – an act of faith unimaginable a year ago.
Round trips have been achieved in and out of the city centre generally without delay and on time. This now seems to be a consistent pattern. Leaving a little legroom for the occasional glitch, the service may not be perfect but it is at least acceptable.
The most high-profile transport issue in Inverness these days is the council’s grossly misguided plans to close Academy Street to virtually all traffic. This feeds into the net zero, carbon neutral ambition to “green the city” which seems the ultimate priority for the powers that be. That’s the intention and – setting aside their Academy Street folly – no doubt it is a laudable one.
But none of that can work without a decent public transport service in the city, which primarily means a properly functioning bus service.
As I say, I’ve found the service has greatly improved. I hope other people are now feeling the same.
What’s vital is that Stagecoach maintains that level of improvement in the colder months ahead. That’s when the impact of cancellations and delays really hits hard.
Plaudits should still be presented with a degree of caution, but trust in the buses may gradually be being restored. Let’s hope that a corner has finally been turned, and that it stays that way.
