Public transport is central to many people’s lives in Cumbria and while it is mostly a blessing – for some, it is slowly becoming a curse.
Over the past year, Stagecoach bus users in West Cumbria have been faced with sudden cancellations, late services and unreliable running times.
The firm has been using Twitter and a live timetable app to update people about issues – which led passengers to notice that the disruption was becoming an almost daily occurrence.
Problems including ‘low vehicle availability’, ‘staff sickness’, ‘staff issues’ and ‘driver shortages’ are Stagecoach’s explanations on Twitter.
Some of the worst impacted bus routes include the 30, X5, 50 and 51 including most of the Workington circulars – which are used frequently by commuters, elderly people, mums, disabled people and youngsters trying to get to school and college.
One of these people is Karen W, 51, of Workington, who lives with mobility issues.
She has never been able to drive and has used Cumbrian buses all her life. But, she said, she had not experienced a time where services were as disrupted as they were now.
After missing hospital appointments and losing money paying for missed sessions of physiotherapy, Karen went on a search for answers from the bus company.
She claimed her attempts to reach out to the firm were met with generic replies and no real information.
She added that she had done everything the firm suggested – including filling in complaints forms, emailing customer advisors and even contacting the firm’s public relations team to no avail.
She said: “They’re having the same staffing issues that they’ve had every day for about 12 months.
“Any of the questions that you ask them like how long is this going to go on? Do I need to make arrangements on a more permanent basis? Do I get a refund on my long-term tickets?
“They don’t give you any answers, they just give you a generic reply and it’s a bit of like an insult to injury.
“I’m a disabled person who needs to use the bus to get anywhere and trying to get a connection organised when you’ve got to get to one part of Workington to another to maybe then catch the train should not be the work of three hours.”
#WestCumbria Due to Driver availability the following services will not be operating, 10:38 29 to Whitehaven, 11:05 2, 11:35 2, 12:09 3, 12:36 3a, 13:05 29 to Workington. please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused by this.
— Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire (@StagecoachCNL) June 2, 2023
Karen added that she had seen countless people on the verge of tears of frustration at her local bus stop when services are cancelled at last minute.
She said: “There is a lot of resentment at the bus stop with older people and busy mums who struggle to use live planners of Facebook or Twitter feeds to find out what is happening.
“Mums in the mornings in particular are saying to me they have to try and organise taxis for school runs at short notice but that those taxis just aren’t available like that.
“Then there’s the mums trying to get a bus to get their children to childcare before work and it is just so stressful.
“You can see people on the edge of tears and tearing their hair out worrying how they are going to get to where they really need to be.
“I’ve been late for medical appointments and the stress that goes along with it is really unfair.”
We asked to sit down with Rob Jones, managing director of Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire, to ask him about the disruption.
One of the company’s public relations companies declined and another sent us this statement from Mr Jones: “We are still exposed to service cancellations due to staffing issues, but these vary by day, and we are working hard to limit any services not operating.
“We have a shortage of engineers which is at times causing service disruption and are actively recruiting to fill those positions.
“We currently have 12 new recruits either started or about to start with us, and once they have become qualified drivers, this will have addressed our driver shortage, so improvements are ongoing, and we continue to strive to provide all our services at every opportunity.”
The organisation has still yet to address how long the disruption might continue.
Karen added: “I’m not expecting it to be central London transport but having used the buses around here for a long period of time, the deterioration is quite remarkable.
“I just want to know what the reason is for it, if they can’t provide the service they should be providing answers.
“The fact that you can be late or miss an appointment and end up back on an NHS waiting list because Stagecoach cannot get their act together and either employ staff, keep staff or keep their vehicles is just not good enough.
“It’s a subsidised company and that is partly why I’m so angry.
“I have I have been significantly out of pocket trying to get to a connection to Carlisle for physical rehab stuff.
“If I miss my sessions that’s £45 every session, I cannot afford to be missing them because of how the way things are with the cost of living.
“Every time I get a referral letter for my sessions, I go from celebrating that I’ve got my appointment to stressing out about contingency plans and how I’m going to get there because I can’t rely on a bus service.”
She added that for the sake of her own mental health, she has decided not to scroll back too far into the bus operator’s Twitter feed to see how long cancellations have been ongoing.
We decided to do this for Karen and couldn’t find any tweets on Stagecoach’s Twitter going beyond May 13 this year.
But last year, we ran a story after we first spotted tweets detailing the disruption from July.
In particular during this time, we spotted ‘staff sickness’ was the reason most regularly referred to. The response we received from Stagecoach then dubbed it as a short-term issue.
Karen added: “It has gone on way longer than just a short-term issue and it makes you worry how bad things really are behind the scenes.
“This level of disruption is not minor, it’s kids screeching and crying because they’ve been stood in the rain for the best part of an hour so mum can go to work and get them to nursery.
“It’s shopping defrosting and ruining and kids being late for college and school and the bus service staff aren’t equipped to deal with that.
“Some people have no choice but to do it five days a week.”
In June last year, Stagecoach signed a two-year contract with Sellafield to reduce the number of vehicles driving onto site.
It has led to speculation the buses may be being diverted for Sellafield use, but the firm has gone on the record to confirm that vehicles and drivers used for that contract are a separate unit and have nothing to do with the service buses.
The 75-seater double-deckers provided are free for Sellafield employees and run from Lillyhall, Workington, Kangol park and ride and Cleator and Yottenfews car park. There are also plans to add more pick-up locations in the future.
Karen said: “The buses seem to always run to Sellafield but nobody else in the area gets to work on time.
“We deserve more than that, there are only so many customer complaint forms that you can expect people to fill in daily. It’s patronising, frustrating and annoying at the same time.”
If you have had poor experiences with Stagecoach services in Cumbria, we want to hear from you. Email us at admin@cumbriacrack.com
