Passengers anger at bus delay

Passengers waited 40 minutes at 8.00am for the 58 bus from Milnrow to come

Passengers waited 40 minutes at 8.00am for the 58 bus from Milnrow to come this morning (Tuesday 8 September).

One passenger said: “I think all the bus times across the region have changed and there were a lot of angry passengers in the bus terminus this morning due to late buses and missed connections.”

One elderly man said: “It’s just absolutely ridiculous.” An elderly women said: “I am 63 years old and it just isn’t on, I can’t stand and wait so long for busses at my age, it wouldn’t have been so bad if they had seats at the bus stop but they have taken all them too now, no-one told me about any changes and I get on at least twice a week they should have better signs.”

A female passenger in her mid-20s added: “I’m over half an hour late for work, what am I going to say to my boss ‘the bus was late’, it sounds like a joke, just like the public transport.”

Passengers said that the driver repeatedly apologised to passengers as they boarded the bus.

A spokesman for First UK Bus (North Region) said: “I'm very sorry for any difficulties customers experienced with service 58 from Milnrow this morning.

Unfortunately the service due to depart at 8.16am did not operate due to a vehicle mechanical fault. In situations such as this we try and replace journeys with replacement buses but regrettably we were unable to do this in time today. The other departures at 7.41am and the 8.46am operated on time.

For information a slight timetable variation was introduced on Sunday 30 August but this only slightly adjusted the departures from 8.11am to 8.16am and 8.41am to 8.46am to account for heavier traffic levels with schools returning after the summer break.

“The timetable change last week was not the cause of the delay for customers today for which we apologise.”