Stagecoach says driver shortage to blame for Peterborough bus cancellations as councillor delayed by 40 minutes

A Peterborough City Councillor, who experienced buses cancelled three times in one day, has raised concerns over the standard of service provided by Stagecoach.

Deputy mayor, councillor Nick Sandford (Lib Dems, Paston and Walton) decided to ‘test’ the number 3 Stagecoach route from Bretton to Queensgate on October 31 with another councillor.

He said: “As soon as I arrived at the bus stop we were greeted with signage to say the service had been cancelled.

“Councillor Sandra Bond (Lib Dems, Gunthorpe) and I had to drive in her car into the city where we caught the number 1 bus service – also operated by Stagecoach – heading towards Werrington.

“While that service ran well with the newly extended route, when we got to Werrington intending to take the return bus back to the city, the driver terminated the vehicle as his hours were up and we were told that the following bus in twenty minutes was cancelled, as was the one twenty minutes after that also cancelled.”

The pair had to wait 40 minutes for the next bus and claim the service “isn’t fit for purpose”.

Driver shortages

Stagecoach have said sorry to customers and explained the new network, implemented from 30 October, has thrown up “teething issues”.

Ross Barton, operations director for Stagecoach East said: “We can only apologise to customers affected by these cancellations. It is incredibly frustrating, and we are sorry. Driver shortages across the industry continue to be a major issue. On Saturday, nine out of ten services ran, and throughout October, 95 per cent of services operated across Cambridgeshire, but this was a particularly bad day which we did everything we could to try and avoid and we are working hard to avoid happening again in the future.

“When cancellations do happen, we always try to give advanced warning, usually the night before, and get cover where possible. This allows us to try everything we possibly can to try and avoid the cancellations. Inevitably with the introduction of a new network, there can be some teething issues and we are doing all we can to minimise those.”

On September 20, Stagecoach East announced they were pulling out of 18 bus services completely – after describing the services as “financially unsustainable” – and reducing a further five significantly from October 30.

Ross added: "The new bus network we have developed in line with the Government’s requirements is now in place, and along with a continued focus on recruiting and training new drivers, we hope this will help improve the situation. However, there is still a way to go. We have 25 people progressing through our 12-week driver training programme, with a further 43 people hopefully progressing to the training course in the coming weeks.

"We are committed to providing an efficient and effective service, helping customers and reducing congestion and the number of cars on the road. We also continue to focus on reducing carbon emissions, for example investing over £7 million to introduce electric buses into the Cambridge Park and Ride services.”