STAGECOACH buses between Chippenham and Swindon have been labelled unreliable by a councillor.

Andrew Matthew, councillor for Royal Wootton Bassett, has said the 55 service is cancelled regularly and without much warning from bus company Stagecoach.

According to the councillor, whenever a service time is cancelled it is put up on companies Twitter adding that not everyone uses the bird app.

“It’s causing people massive dramas and issues of getting to work reliably on-time,” he told the LDRS.

“Some people have said we’re lucky because the service is every 20 minutes, but it’s not if you keep cancelling it.

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“We are lucky when it runs – the problem is you can’t rely on it running every 20 minutes.

“It’s not been an acceptable level of service, really. A lot of residents are really unhappy with it.”

Operational reasons, is one of the excuses given to Cllr Matthews over the patchy service, alongside roadworks and the impact of Brexit on the labour market.

The incentives to return to the haulage industry, according to Cllr Matthews have meant that bus drivers have left their posts to become HGV drivers.

Cllr Matthews added that it was frustrating that, in the midst of a climate emergency, it was difficult to encourage public transport options if they are unreliable. How are you supposed to get the 10:10am bus if it just doesn’t turn up?” he said.

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Rachel Geliamassi, managing director at Stagecoach West, said: “We apologise to our customers who have been affected by continued travel disruptions in the area.

"We are currently running 96 per cent of our usual service levels in Wiltshire but appreciate how frustrating cancellations are.

“We are experiencing a number of well documented challenges as we emerge from the pandemic and begin to see the effects of Brexit on the employment market.

"We currently have more drivers in our recruitment system than we have a shortage of. However, a mounting backlog in vocational licences being processed by the DVLA is delaying these drivers from getting on the road.

“Whilst it is likely that these challenges will continue for some time, we are working hard to alleviate the pressures on our network and are prioritising school and commuter services.

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"However, regrettably, we are still having to make some tough decisions over service cancellations due to short notice sickness, for which we can only apologise.

“Our customers can keep up to date with service changes by checking Twitter, using the Stagecoach Bus App, visiting one of our Travel Shops, or contacting us by phone.

“We would like to thank customers for their patience with our frontline teams whilst we work to resolve these problems and get new drivers on the road.”