A Dundee councillor has written to the head of Xplore Dundee to find out more about emergency cuts to city services.
Bosses at the city bus firm posted a statement on their website last week.
It announced service reductions from Monday, March 14 in a bid to avoid short notice cancellations.
Christine McGlasson is currently the managing director at Xplore Dundee.
Her company blamed a national driver shortage for the changes, assuring passengers they were temporary.
We expect the firm to publish new timetables on Friday, March 4.
West End Lib Dem councillor Fraser Macpherson said he was “anxious to get details” of the specific effect of the changes on his constituents.
He said: “I am contacting the managing director seeking further information on the effect of these changes.
“I do understand the recruitment challenges they are facing and they are not unique to Xplore Dundee.”
What has Xplore Dundee said about the changes?
The company posted a long statement on its website at the end of February as passengers in the city continued to report cancelled services.
It read: “The local bus network has experienced some unfortunate disruption from the ongoing effects of a national driver shortage and local staff absences.
“Despite the best efforts of our team to cover as much work as possible, we regret that some journeys have been missed and that this has had an impact on our passengers.
“We’ll temporarily adjust timetables to realistic levels so that our services are more reliable.
“We’ll keep running as many buses as we can, in-line with staff availability.
“We believe (and we hope you’ll agree) that a reliably reduced service in the short-term is better than cancelling journeys at short notice.”
Which Dundee bus services do we know are affected?
Xplore Dundee said services on many of its busiest routes will run every 15 minutes during the day on weekdays.
Its timetables on weekday evenings and Saturdays will not change.
Buses will continue to run every half-hour during the day on Sundays.
Services reduce to hourly departures after 6pm on Sunday evenings, the company has told passengers.
It will suspend service 36c and withdraw service 10 journeys to/from Harris Academy.
An Xplore Dundee spokesman said: “Xplore Dundee ridership is at 75% of pre-Covid levels yet current mileage is just over 90% of pre-Covid levels, which is where we want to be to attract people back to travelling by bus as restrictions lift.
“We have a short term driver availability issue which is why these temporary changes are being made.
“It is important for the people of Dundee that the bus turns up when it is supposed to and this adjustment will achieve that.
“We expect to be resorting back to full strength by the start of May.”
