Stagecoach replies to raft of customer complaints about its far north services
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Complaints from Caithness residents, some elderly and disabled, about Stagecoach buses not showing up at stops have been tackled by the company.
Some of the complaints have been addressed by Wick and east Caithness councillor Jan McEwan who said she will bring the matter up with Highland Council.
"They [Stagecoach] kept advising me that my contacts were wrong and that the buses had been there," she said.
"I’m afraid I am really annoyed at the emails I got, but I will be bringing it up at the next transport meeting. The Caithness public deserve better, we are being treated like second class citizens by Stagecoach."
In April, cancer patient Mandy Bartlett from Thurso talked to the paper about her "anger and frustration" after a Stagecoach bus failed to show up at Raigmore for the journey back to Caithness.
Mrs Bartlett had waited almost an hour at the hospital bus stop to catch the X99 back to Scrabster after undergoing a week of radiotherapy treatment. A few minutes before it was due at 2pm the X99 info disappeared from the electronic display and she was left stranded. Stagecoach eventually apologised to her but Mrs Bartlett found the response "bog standard" and felt the service was deplorable.
Related article:
Stagecoach bus no-show was deplorable, says cancer patient from Thurso
On June 9, Tony Sinclair from Wick was awaiting the X99 outside Raigmore hospital when a similar experience happened. The information panel showed the bus due for arrival at 2pm but then it suddenly disappeared.
"I had my leg amputated in 2021 due to diabetes and was down at the hospital to get a check up," Mr Sinclair recalled. "I've got a bus pass and left at 7am, had my appointment at 11.50am and was waiting for the bus back to Wick at 2pm. I was here at 1.50pm and when two o'clock arrived the information disappeared."
The 76-year-old said there was a disabled woman on crutches at the bus stop who was heading to Thurso after a hospital appointment and she called her husband. "He then called Stagecoach and they sent a bus up for us and took us to the station. When we got there they said the bus for Caithness had already left and we needed to catch the next bus. The girl at the desk said stuff like this had been going on for six months."
Mr Sinclair and the Thurso woman had to wait several hours for the next bus service to Caithness which left at 4.50pm. He said he contacted the paper to "highlight this very unsatisfactory situation" and to warn other patients about the poor service.
When Stagecoach was contacted it said that the 2pm service did operate "albeit with around a 20min delay, and the full route was completed". The company stated that two passengers boarded the bus at Raigmore and that it had reviewed details about the journey with the GPS tracking information from the vehicle.
A spokesperson for Stagecoach Highlands said, "We can confirm that although the 2pm service was delayed by approximately twenty minutes on this occasion, it did operate and completed the full route, including serving Raigmore." The company was unable to explain, however, that if the bus was running late then why were the two passengers not informed of that fact at the bus station where they could have presumably boarded it instead of waiting hours for the next service.
In reference to the electronic displays, the company added: "The system will display the scheduled arrival time of the services. If the bus is in close proximity, the time will be updated to reflect the realistic arrival time, rather than the scheduled time. However, if the bus fails to approach within proximity to activate real-time tracking, the display will promptly remove it from the screen once the scheduled time has been exceeded."
Last Friday (August 4), we spoke with other passengers at the Raigmore stop who said there are often cancellations of Stagecoach services and buses failing to show up.
Councillor McEwan was contacted by other disgruntled Caithness passengers who had also been waiting outside Raigmore when their 4.25pm service failed to show on July 12. "One of the passengers, a Mrs MacDonald who is disabled, had been attending a hospital appointment and the other was a student.
"The overhead timetable did state the bus would be arriving in 12 minutes [but this] never happened. Luckily enough the mother of the student was waiting with him and drove him and Mrs MacDonald to the bus station were the X99 was in situ, never having gone to Raigmore. This is the last bus to Thurso and if Mrs MacDonald hadn’t got a lift she wouldn’t have got home and the student wouldn’t have got to his appointment."
She added that when they got on the bus there were only four seats left "which might suggest a later bus to Thurso is needed".
"This is really not a good enough public service for Caithness," said the councillor.
Alex Flanagan, operations director, Stagecoach North Scotland said: “We are aware of the complaint regarding the late running of service X99 on 12th July and have discussed the concerns directly with Councillor McEwan. Unfortunately, the intended journey was running late due to peak time traffic yet did serve the hospital around 21 minutes late where a passenger was picked up. I’m glad the customers were able to make their onward journey from the bus station and apologise for the delay to this service.”
Stagecoach was also rebuked by an unnamed Thurso woman who said that its buses were failing to pick up passengers from the stop next to Skinandi's on Sir George's Street. Her complaint was about the 276 service to Dounreay and she felt the driver was trying to get through the traffic lights close by when they were at green.
"The three timetables clearly indicate that this bus is scheduled to stop here but for several months now, it does not stop," she stated on July 29.
"It cannot be because it is full as I can see, as it drives past, empty seats. I had heard the driver had a altercation with a passenger at a stop further on, but that shouldn't stop him picking up passengers at a scheduled stop." The woman said that after writing to Stagecoach the bus now stops there.
The company says it encourages its customers to use its bus app and dedicated helpline if there are any queries.
