First Bus has today (March 12) announced a number of their buses have been impacted due to driver shortages and staff sickness. A tweet issued by First West of England this morning confirmed "there are a number of buses off across all of the Bristol depots".
It was later confirmed by a spokesperson for First Buses who said: “Due to the ongoing driver shortage, and current staff sickness, unfortunately, a number of our buses are not running."
Passengers are advised to check the First Bus app on their mobile devices throughout the day to ensure they're aware of any cancellations or delayed services.
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A spokesperson for First Bus said: “Due to the ongoing driver shortage, and current staff sickness, unfortunately, a number of our buses are not running. We apologise for any inconvenience and would like to thank our customers for their patience.
"We are working as hard as we can to resolve the situation and are actively recruiting drivers.”
It is unknown how many services specifically are affected, but it is believed to be a Bristol wide issue rather than one specific area.
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Passengers across Bristol have not been happy with the announcement of impacted services. Twitter user @Motivatedmage replied to the tweet online and said: "Of course it’s not the social teams' fault but First Bus have been terrible with their cancellations and their reliability.
"The worst kick in the teeth is that prices are constantly rising. Please be more accountable First Bus." Another user @SarHarSuperStar added: "Agree wholeheartedly, yesterday was particularly bad! So many of the buses I tried to get were cancelled. One driver told me 'Friday is a bad day unfortunately', I don't get why?!"
A third user @starl0rd2378 agreed and added: "They're either late cancelled without warning or in some rare cases drivers driving off when they're supposed to be waiting, yet the price rise was astronomical."
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