Bus traveller tells of nightmare journeys
Thursday, 18th October 2001.
FED UP bus traveller Ray Walker says his bus home from Cambridge to Hayerhill has failed to turn up on nine occasions in a month, and on one day it took him almost three hours to get home.
Mr Walker, 51, of Lundy Close, Haverhill, works for Cambridge University Press and has travelled by bus daily for the past 10 years. He says Stagecoach buses frequently fail to turn up and often when a bus does arrive it is very overcrowded.
On one night he left his office at just before 4pm and could not get on a bus until 5.40pm, arriving home at 6.30pm. Next morning he waited for the 6.55am bus at Chalkstone Way, but it did not turn up and he had to wait for the 7.25, arriving at his desk at five minutes to nine.
“It just doesn’t get any better. It is nine times so far in the past month that the bus hasn’t turned up. Last night when it did turn up the bus was so clapped out it looked as if it should not be on the road.
“The steering wheel was held together with sellotape, the gears were making an awful screeching sound and the windows rattled and banged.
“It is supposed to be a prestigious route to Haverhill, as Stagecoach were saying not so long ago. By the time it gets to me it is full, then all the students get on. The other day there must have been 110 to 120 people on there and it is only supposed to take 80.
“I have spoken to the drivers and they are just as fed up as I am. I cannot understand why it is the Haverhill route that is suffering, I often see three other buses go by, all empty,” Mr Walker said.
His wife Susan is writing to MP Richard Spring to see if he can do anything to help. “It is just not right, you expect the service you are paying for. The government say we should get out of our cars and on to the bus, but how can you,” Mrs Walker said.
James Bradley, Stagecoach operational manager in Cambridge, said they would be investigating Mr Walker’s complaints and doing their best to put them right. He accepted there had been problems with the service and said part of the reason was traffic hold-ups at peak times.
Mr Walker, 51, of Lundy Close, Haverhill, works for Cambridge University Press and has travelled by bus daily for the past 10 years. He says Stagecoach buses frequently fail to turn up and often when a bus does arrive it is very overcrowded.
On one night he left his office at just before 4pm and could not get on a bus until 5.40pm, arriving home at 6.30pm. Next morning he waited for the 6.55am bus at Chalkstone Way, but it did not turn up and he had to wait for the 7.25, arriving at his desk at five minutes to nine.
“It just doesn’t get any better. It is nine times so far in the past month that the bus hasn’t turned up. Last night when it did turn up the bus was so clapped out it looked as if it should not be on the road.
“The steering wheel was held together with sellotape, the gears were making an awful screeching sound and the windows rattled and banged.
“It is supposed to be a prestigious route to Haverhill, as Stagecoach were saying not so long ago. By the time it gets to me it is full, then all the students get on. The other day there must have been 110 to 120 people on there and it is only supposed to take 80.
“I have spoken to the drivers and they are just as fed up as I am. I cannot understand why it is the Haverhill route that is suffering, I often see three other buses go by, all empty,” Mr Walker said.
His wife Susan is writing to MP Richard Spring to see if he can do anything to help. “It is just not right, you expect the service you are paying for. The government say we should get out of our cars and on to the bus, but how can you,” Mrs Walker said.
James Bradley, Stagecoach operational manager in Cambridge, said they would be investigating Mr Walker’s complaints and doing their best to put them right. He accepted there had been problems with the service and said part of the reason was traffic hold-ups at peak times.
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