Inverness residents forced to rely on taxis as Stagecoach Highlands bus disruption continues
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PEOPLE in Inverness and the Highlands are having to pay for taxis to get to work as they simply cannot rely on public transport in the city.
For months residents relying on buses to get around Inverness have been faced with daily cancellations.
Janet Davidson (73), who lives near Castle Heather Park, said she has missed a medical appointment due to buses not turning up, with no communication at the bus stop.
She said: “I sent a complaint the same day and I believe that my complaint was not forwarded to the main office.
“The buses should run on a 20-minute service but they never run on time.”
She added: “My son has to take the bus to get to work, and he often has to call a taxi to get to his workplace.
“A few weeks ago he had to pay for a taxi three times in one week. He has to deal with this all the time and they won’t refund taxis.”
Highland Council’s chairman of the economy and infrastructure committee Ken Gowans said: “Unfortunately there is not a great deal we can do as a council, we are at the mercy of our contractors.
“Everyone, myself included, has been a victim of buses not turning up. For me it meant taking a taxi from the airport to the station; for other people that might mean that they don’t know whether they will be late to work or miss a shift at work, or they don’t know whether they can get to work that day.
“We are very aware of the issues that Stagecoach are facing in terms of recruiting drivers, but at the end of the day they are there to provide a service and it’s just not been proving very successful right now.
“It’s now no longer an unusual occurrence for a bus not to turn up and that’s not acceptable. Stagecoach are very aware of the discontent that there is at present within the council and within the public.”
Inverness MP Drew Hendry, who previously organised a roundtable with Stagecoach and other stakeholders, said: “One of the outcomes from the meetings was to get better communication and I think that some things have been improved in that sense, however there is a real problem with the service.
“Stagecoach are not providing a good enough service for Inverness and rural areas that need to be supplied with a reliable and well-run bus service.
“It’s very clear that there are substantial problems with recruitment, and that is across the industry, however ultimately, given that Stagecoach are a private company, it’s their responsibility to provide a greater improvement to the bus service – which is just unacceptable at the moment.”
A spokesperson for Stagecoach Highlands said, "We apologise to customers who have been affected by cancelled journeys. Travel information for any affected routes is shared on Twitter (@StagecoachHLand) every morning, as quickly as we are able to do so.
"Only a small number of routes within Inverness City Centre have been affected, and the rest of our network continues to operate as normal. We are operating every journey in Inverness City Centre that we possibly can with the resources that are currently available to us.
"Like every public transport operator across the UK, we have been impacted by the national labour shortage. Whilst we are making good progress with recruitment, it does take time to get new drivers through the professional training they require before being out on the roads."
The company uses social media to alert people to services it is unable to operate.
