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Woman disgusted by loss of Saturday bus service to Wick


By Jean Gunn

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An Ulbster woman is disgusted with the Stagecoach decision to axe Saturday buses from Dunbeath to Wick.

Seventy-year-old Susan Price said she relied on the service 81 to get to her work at Tesco. She now faces a taxi bill of £20 to get to her Saturday job.

Mrs Price said that when she rang the bus company to complain and tell them she'd be sending in her taxi bill they did not appear to care about her predicament.

Because of her age she gets the local bus service free from the end of her drive at Ulbster, but taking a taxi would incur a fee of £10 to her work and £10 back again.

"They are saying these buses are not viable, but there are a lot of people who work in Wick – it does not make any sense, it is just so annoying," she said.

"We live in the countryside so you have a limited service anyway. It is disgusting. They just don't care."

She pointed out that for many elderly people the bus service was their only outlet and Saturday is a popular shopping day.

Mrs Price said the axed service meant she'd had to change her work hours.

"They did this suddenly and never informed anybody," Mrs Price said. "My husband just happened to print off the timetables. It is not just affecting me – it is also affecting elderly people and other people working in Wick."

She added: "The bus drivers are totally confused as they are going on trips they do not know."

A spokesperson for Stagecoach Highlands said: “The last six months have been an extremely challenging time for our business, with passenger journeys falling by 90 per cent across the Highlands with little signs of recovery so far.

"We have made adjustments to some of our services across the Highlands in line with the demand we are seeing return. We have reviewed usage levels over the last 12 months and the Saturday service 81 has been very poorly used, with an average of 3.4 passengers on Saturdays.

"This level of use is unsustainable as unfortunately it does not cover the cost of operating the service. We are not in a position to operate services at a loss and have withdrawn the Saturday service 81 as a result.”

Service 81 which ran from Thurso to Dunbeath, via Castletown and Wick, was replaced with the 75 bus between Wick and Dunbeath and the number 77 between Thurso and Wick – this change came into operation on August 10.

The Stagecoach spokesperson added: "These changes are reflective of current demand for bus services in Caithness."


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