Disabled passenger blasts 'soul-destroying' Stagecoach service

FRUSTRATED commuters are missing important appointments and being left late for work because of the "soul-destroying" unreliability of a revamped Ross-shire bus service.

A dedicated route linking North Kessock with Inverness has been slammed as "beyond a joke" by disgruntled passenger Steve Emerson, a single parent living in the Black Isle village who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and relies on the link to make vital appointments in the city.

He said that since a public consultation staged in February by Stagecoach to look at services on the Black Isle, the No.23 North Kessock service had "gone from bad to worse".

Matters came to a head last Wednesday when THREE morning buses failed to show up at the scheduled time.

Mr Emerson, of Ferry Brae, said: "When the 8am bus failed to show up, there were people on their mobiles trying to contact Stagecoach to find out what was going on. I was due in at the Citizens Advice Bureau and I know other people there had appointments.

"In the last six months, I can count on one hand the nuumber of times it has been on time. It’s a complete disgrace.

"I think it has got to the stage now where drivers are told not to engage with passengers about why the bus is so late.

"And then returning from the bus station at Inverness, there’s a lack of clarity about which stance the service will depart from. It’s a shambles.

"It’s pretty soul-destroying if you have somewhere you need to be and you’re let down on a regular basis.

"I’ve been offered complimentary vouchers but I don’t need them – I have a bus pass. I just want a reliable service, as do others."

He said that with his health condition, walking up and down hills to and from his home to the bus stop is a real struggle.

Black Isle councillor Gordon Adam said: "There have been a number of concerns about the North Kessock service.

"There is the no-show issue, and the fact that it is now almost impossible to get to the rest of the Black Isle from Kessock without going to Inverness first and changing buses.

"I have raised this with Stagecoach but the response is that they run a commercial service.

"The irony is that the dedicated North Kessock to Inverness service was the result of a Highland Council subsidy to Stagecoach allowing a half-hourly service from Inverness to Fortrose – which in fact appears to have left North Kessock residents with a worse, rather than improved, service."

He plans meeting the new managing director at Stagecoach "to discuss this and the long-running Culbokie service issue. A compromise was suggested whereby the Stagecoach picked up from Culbokie in the morning, but we have not had any response to this yet."

A spokesperson for Stagecoach North Scotland said June 20 had posed problems due to census work carried out on the A9 without prior notification.

She said the team "worked tirelessly in an effort to maintain reliability across our network, however we could simply not contend with the standstill traffic and at one point that morning we had 11 of our buses held in the traffic between the Tore roundabout and the Kessock Bridge".

Asked about wider complaints about the standard of service, she said: "In October 2017 we introduced service 23 to our network. The introduction of this service provides North Kessock with a dedicated service to Inverness as well as improving journey travel times for customers travelling from Cromarty to Inverness by bus.

"Prior to this revision we analysed journey trends of bus passengers and the number of journeys being made from North Kessock to the Black Isle was incredibly low.

"In February 2018 we held a public consultation to gather feedback on our services in Inverness and the Black Isle.

"During this consultation it was highlighted to us that the improvement in journey times from Cromarty and Fortrose were very well received by the local communities in these areas.

"We continually review the performance of our services and welcome all customer feedback on the services we provide."

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