Stagecoach offers freebie to say sorry

Stagecoach acknowledges previous reliability problems in the area and will offer one week’s free travel to residents in the Ferintosh area as a thank you for their patience while it tries to resolve issues.

The discount offer comes just a week before residents in North Kessock are due to hand over a petition to their community council raising serious concerns about the Stagecoach service in the village.

In Ferintosh, Stagecoach made changes to timetables in May 2011 and, following community feedback from unhappy customers, additional journeys were added between Culbokie and Inverness for commuters. Since this time, the company says it has reported increased reliability statistics.

Routes 21 and 22 operate between Culbokie and Inverness, with route 21 also offering links to Dingwall as well as a demand responsive service across the Ferintosh area on certain days.

Steve Walker, Stagecoach in the Highlands managing director, said: “We have been monitoring these routes for some time and have seen an improvement in reliability across the last 10 months. Minor changes made in January this year may also have assisted and we sincerely hope residents in the Ferintosh area have seen a difference.

“As a thank you for their patience while we endeavour to get things right, we’re offering a week’s free travel for customers in this area until the end of February, providing a seven-day megarider ticket for travel in zones 2 or 3 completely free. The voucher will be provided to households across the Ferintosh area this week.

“Of course, we still invite feedback from our customers and the voucher will also be a way to obtain any customer comments, but they can also contact our Inverness office with any queries or concerns.”

Bruce Morrison, chairman of Ferintosh Community Council, said: “Steve Walker and his team have transformed their past performance into a very acceptable sustainable service that we are able now to use with confidence.

“I also know that Steve is determined to push performance further to becoming one of the best in the country and any resident support would be welcome in order to help him achieve that.

“I appreciate the thought behind Stagecoach’s free travel offer that may also nudge us towards fewer car miles and more bus miles.”

However bus users in North Kessock are not so happy with the service Stagecoach is providing.

Residents will hand a petition to a meeting of Knockbain Community Council next week calling for its support to urge Stagecoach to improve the service to the village.

Highland councillor Isobel McCallum said: “I’m really pleased that residents in Ferintosh have been able to resolve their problems which have been on-going for about a year.

“The community council there has been very active in gathering data about the problems which they have been feeding to Stagecoach and that’s how they have brought about improvements.

“But I know there is still a lot of dissatisfaction with the service Stagecoach is providing in North Kessock and maybe the community there need to take a lead from Ferintosh and also collect data, because there is certainly room for improvement on the part of Stagecoach.”