Stagecoach has admitted that certain journeys on their under-fire 39 service in Perthshire are “regularly late”.
The bus company also revealed that additional buses and drivers have been in place since early June to deal with the problematic service in the Carse of Gowrie.
Stagecoach accepted the delays during a meeting between Councillor Angus Forbes and their operations director David Frenz.
Mr Forbes, Conservative councillor for the Carse of Gowrie, met the company over a host of complaints regarding cancellations and delays on the service.
The 39 came into effect in May to replace the axed X7 and 16 routes after a campaign led by The Courier stopped them removing all commercial bus services from the area.
‘The reliability of the 39 service is poor’
Speaking to The Courier after his meeting, Councillor Forbes said: “Stagecoach accept the reliability of the 39 service is poor.
“The data they showed me would back up that in most cases it does actually run but they are not denying its regularly late and often very late.
“The data they have demonstrates that most of the delays that affect the Carse of Gowrie are picked up in Dundee or Perth.
“They now have a spare bus at Perth so if the Perth bound bus is late, they can deploy the spare bus and driver to pick up the route so that buses leaving Perth are back on time.
“They have already done this to good effect.”
Stagecoach clarified that there are certain journeys which are regularly late, not necessarily the service as a whole.
Possible changes to timetable in the future
The councillor also said there were plans to give drivers more time to do the route so that the timetable would more accurately reflects the actual running of the service.
He was told the proposal would only affect bus times in the Carse by a few minutes each way.
However, this solution is longer-term as Stagecoach cannot change the timetable for 90 days and would then need to give 70 days notice and carry out a consultation.
Councillor Forbes was also assured that the company were not running the service with delays so it could be cut at a later date.
This has been a fear of many residents within the Carse since the 39 was introduced.
But he did have concerns that reliability issues would affect passenger numbers.
“They assured me that in no way are they intentionally running the service down to give them a reason to cut it,” said Councillor Forbes.
“I suspect many commuters will not be 100% convinced by that and the proof really does need to be in the pudding but I am happy to take that at face value for now.
“One of my main concerns is that an unreliable service will result in less passengers and then make the route financially unsustainable, but they absolutely assure me that they know the reliability of the route will result in less passengers and they know that until the reliability issue is resolved they have to accept that this is the case.
“On that topic they were keen to stress that its in their interest to get the route issues resolved and make it reliable so that passenger numbers increase.”
Stagecoach say roadworks to blame
Stagecoach has blamed a number of “extremely disruptive” roadworks for the ongoing issues, saying they are impacting the service.
David Frenz, operations director for Stagecoach East Scotland said: “Like all public transport operators, our vehicles can suffer faults from time to time and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and disruption this causes our customers.
“Service 39 has been impacted by several sets of roadworks since its introduction in May.
“These include the works on Dundee Road – Arbroath, Arbroath Road – Dundee, Jeanfield Road/Rose Crescent – Perth and currently the Friarton Bridge lane closures causing queues as far back as St Madoes.
“In addition, there have been a number of one-off disruptions, such as low hanging branches damaging vehicles in the Carse and gridlock in Dundee City Centre.”
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