'Terrible' Tidworth bus service caused by driver shortage

A vital bus service continues to experience widespread problems, months after operators had promised action.

The mayor of Tidworth said the Wiltshire town had been left "frustrated" by the poor reliability of connections to Salisbury and Andover.

Stagecoach said it was due to too few drivers but it was trying to recruit.

A bus driving instructor from Wiltshire told BBC Radio Wiltshire the industry's problems would continue unless and until wages were increased.

The Activ8 bus is often the only public transport option connecting Tidworth and Ludgershall to the likes of Salisbury and Andover.

It is jointly operated by two firms, Salisbury Reds and Stagecoach South.

Operator Stagecoach has experienced the bulk of the problems, and has recently reduced the number of local Tidworth services each hour to try and make the remaining schedule more reliable.

For years it has been a trusted staple of local communities, but Tidworth's mayor and Wiltshire councillor Mark Connolly said in recent months "there have been a lot of buses turning up late and people are quite rightly frustrated by it".

"For a lot of residents it means they may not get paid because they're not getting to work, and people just can't get out to do their bigger shopping," Mr Connolly said.

Mother-of-three Sasha O'Neill uses the Activ8 for the school run, between Ludgershall and Tidworth, and said she had recently been "stressed out" by the problems.

She has waited for "up to two hours, in the middle of winter" to get her girls back home from school.

Ludgershall passenger Chloe said: "It's been pretty terrible. In my first week of my new job I was late most days."

At the next stop waiting to head to work in Andover, another passenger called Lee told the BBC: "It's always late, sometimes when I come home from work it just doesn't show up."

Stagecoach said it was managing to run a reliable half-hourly bus service in the area, but a spokesperson said "driver shortages are continuing to have an impact at our depot in Andover and we are to working hard to recruit new team members."

"The good news is we have lots of recruits in training and hope to reinstate our full service as quickly as possible," they added.

But there are concerns a shortage of drivers across the industry will not be solved until firms improve the pay and conditions on offer.

Sue Howe, who runs her own bus and lorry driving school on the outskirts of Swindon, said drivers were increasingly moving from buses to supermarket lorries to double their salaries.

"One of the bus companies has done a pay freeze for three years whereas the lorry money has gone up and up", she said.

"They've got to pay the drivers more money, nearer £40,000, to encourage people to want to be bus drivers and stay in that career, and give them decent shifts".

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