Stagecoach bus no-show was deplorable, says cancer patient from Thurso
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A cancer patient from Thurso has spoken of the anger and frustration she felt at finding herself stuck in Inverness after a Stagecoach bus failed to show up.
Mandy Bartlett was so keen to get home after a full week of radiotherapy treatment in Raigmore that she waited for almost an hour at the hospital bus stop on Friday afternoon to catch the X99 service to Scrabster.
It was due to call in at Raigmore at 2pm – but, a few minutes before its scheduled arrival, the X99 vanished from the destination board and Mrs Bartlett was among those left stranded when the bus didn't materialise.
She ended up having to catch a later service, eventually getting to Thurso at about 8.20pm.
“I've been through cancer treatment. I'd just received radiotherapy that morning," Mrs Bartlett (54) said. "That was my fifth of five radiotherapy treatments that I'd had.
“I was physically and emotionally shattered by the time I got back home."
On Monday she received an apology from Stagecoach which she described as "bog-standard" and "perfunctory". In it, the bus company said the matter would be investigated internally and acknowledged that her experience "wasn’t great".
Mrs Bartlett said: “I just feel that Stagecoach's whole attitude to this thing is deplorable. I'm not so much doing this for myself, it's whoever comes at the back of me."
Mrs Bartlett and her husband Stephen live in the Pennyland area of Thurso. She has had to take time off from her job as a Co-op customer team member.
She had taken the bus to Inverness the previous Sunday before undergoing a series of five daily radiotherapy treatments from Monday to Friday.
Eager to get home on the scheduled 2pm service from the Raigmore bus stop, Mrs Bartlett allowed herself plenty of time.
“I was there about five or ten past one," she said. “The destination board had shown, about 25 past or half-past the hour, the X99 as coming into Raigmore at 1400 hours.
"About five to two it suddenly disappeared off the destination board. Me and this other chap that was there to catch the same bus looked at each other and said, 'Wait a minute, there's something not right here.'
“The chain of events then kicked in. The bus didn't turn up, and there was no explanation as to why that happened.”
Unable to get through by phone, Mrs Bartlett and the other passenger caught a local service into the city's bus station. By then it was around 2.15pm and they asked its driver if the X99, due to leave the bus station about five minutes later, could be held for them.
“By the time we dashed off the bus, when it got into the town centre, and ran across the concourse there was no sign of the X99 there," she said. “That wasn't down to the town bus driver – he tried his best.
"The other gentleman spoke with the bus inspector. He had mentioned getting a taxi to catch up with our bus, but this was later rescinded. The inspector had telephoned someone, I presume his supervisor or manager, and told us both that Stagecoach were not liable as we had not booked the bus in question."
Mrs Bartlett said she managed to catch the 4.50pm service from the bus station and got to Thurso by around 8.20pm – more than seven hours after she had begun waiting outside Raigmore for the earlier X99.
She said she felt "anger and frustration at the way I'd been treated”, adding: “There was no explanation, no apology, no nothing. It was just ridiculous.
"By the time twenty past eight came I was absolutely done.
"The fact of the matter is you're having to travel over 100 miles to get from Caithness down to Raigmore for treatment, and you can't even rely on the bus. As you can imagine, I was quite keen to get back up the road.
“The ironic thing is that had I known there was going to be any problem I could easily have got a bus into the town centre. But I thought, 'No, I'm going to wait and get the bus from the hospital straight up to Thurso. There shouldn't be any issues.'
“I think Stagecoach were quite cavalier with their attitude.”
Having lodged a complaint on Friday, Mrs Bartlett received an apology on Monday from the Stagecoach customer service team.
It said: "We are sorry to hear your recent experience with us wasn’t great.
"We have passed your feedback on to the depot manager responsible for the service for them to investigate and deal with internally in line with company procedures.
"We’re sorry again for your recent experience, we really value your feedback so if you have any comments or concerns in future, please do not hesitate to contact us again."
A spokesperson for Stagecoach Highlands said: "We sincerely apologise to Mrs Bartlett and other customers affected by the non-operation of service X99 on Friday, which was due to an error.
"Service update information is normally displayed on screens at bus stops as well as the Stagecoach Bus App, and shared via our Twitter page. However, unfortunately in this instance details were not communicated to customers.
"We will investigate thoroughly to ensure we can prevent similar errors from occurring in future."
