Stagecoach bus service gives singer the blues
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A MUSICIAN who doubles as an auxiliary nurse is leading a growing chorus of people demanding better bus links to Raigmore Hospital.
Matt Drum, front-man for heavy metal band Slioch, claims he and hospital colleagues have been left having to pay for taxis or wait more than 45 minutes for buses after long shifts "thanks to an inadequate bus service provided by Stagecoach".
A spokeswoman for the company said severe weather at times made it difficult for its drivers to stick to schedules. Mr Drum (28) insisted the problems were year-round.
His rant on a social network has sparked an outpouring of rage from fellow passengers spurring him on to raise an official complaint with his MSP Fergus Ewing and MP Drew Hendry.
"I’ve written to Stagecoach," Mr Drum said. "But now that so many people have come to me and told me their stories on Facebook, I’m definitely going to take this further.
"The one thing that really gets to me is buses are sometimes nearly an hour late and a lot of the hospital’s visitors are elderly people – when you think about it, that’s almost an hour for them to be standing in the cold."
Among others fired up after seeing his Facebook posting was a Dingwall mum who contacted the Inverness Courier.
The woman, who preferred not to be named, said her teenage son relied on the service to get to Inverness College UHI each morning but it often arrived late, leaving him standing in the cold and stressed about getting to his lectures on time.
She said: "Things were even worse this morning because I had to run him up to Inverness. The bus never appeared."
A spokeswoman for Stagecoach North Scotland said the tracking of its buses in Inverness confirmed that, "on an average week, 95.1 per cent of our services operate on time".
She added: "This would have been slightly lower last week during the weather disruption and road conditions."
Having checked the firm’s tracking information, she denied that passengers endured a "45-minute" wait for the 3A service, indicating that delays to the three evening Raigmore services on January 17 ranged from one minute to 14 minutes for the 8.54pm service.
The reliability figure for Stagecoach’s Dingwall buses was "more than 90 per cent running on time" although, again, the severe weather conditions were said to have made it more challenging to operate to scheduled times.
The company said the 25U morning service, starting from Tain, was sometimes delayed by roadworks at the Cromarty Bridge.
"All of our vehicles are fitted with tracking technology that allows customers, through our app and website, to check where their bus is and also allows us to closely monitor service punctuality across the network," said the spokeswoman.
Mr Ewing and Mr Hendry want to discuss the matter with Mr Drum.
