Care workers who depend on bus services have hit out at continuing service disruption from Stagecoach.
As of December, Stagecoach needed to find 21 extra drivers to operate its Perth services as planned.
Daily alerts from Stagecoach East Scotland continue to flag up service cancellations.
The number of Perth buses which do not run averages at around 38 a day but on some days, when illness and breakdown add to the problem of a lack of drivers, the cancellation tally has gone as high as 98 (December 17).
Mo Simpson (54), from Perth, works in the care sector. She told the PA: “I don’t drive. I rely on the buses but not as much as the carers do.
“The carers are struggling to get to their clients on time.
“I contacted our local councillor, John Rebbeck. He contacted [MSP] Jim Farlie who met with Stagecoach and informed them that the service was unacceptable.
“This was a few months ago and drivers were being trained. We understood that it takes at least three months for drivers to be trained. This was beginning of September, so now beginning January, there is no excuse.”
Stagecoach provided the PA with figures for driver recruitment.
In October 2022 they had 39 fewer drivers than the company required to avoid the cancellations of Perth services, but 12 were undergoing training.
In November there were 30 driver vacancies with 10 drivers getting trained.
Stagecoach explained that in December, the company was under capacity by 21 bus drivers - half the number of two months before - and seven were in training.
Mo then aimed her wrath at the Stagecoach app: “Stagecoach, where were you when people lost their jobs due to your buses (on a regular basis) by not turning up despite your app saying that the bus was on time?
“Where were you when people who were attending PRI for operations and operations had to be rescheduled as again buses didn’t turn up - the app wasn’t updated?
“Where were you when I, amongst others, witnessed elderly people being left at least 45 minutes for a bus which wasn’t ever going to appear despite you having advertised on your apparently regularly updated bus stop on Glasgow Road?
“Stagecoach, please employ someone at Mill Street in particular to coordinate and inform people.”
Chathurika Vimarshani De Alwis said she twice had to go by taxi from Perth to the care home in Crieff where she works.
“On Tuesday, December 20 and Monday 21 there were no buses to Crieff from Perth at 6.15pm, 6.55pm and 9.15pm.
“This meant I had to pay £38 each day for a taxi to come to work. I’d purchased a weekly Rider ticket then instead of benefiting from that, I had to pay for taxis.”
A spokesperson for Stagecoach responded: “We understand it is frustrating when there are delays and cancellations. We are currently recruiting and training more staff to fulfil as many services as possible.
“We’re still making good progress on recruitment in Perth, however due to the time of year there is a higher level of staff sickness and holidays which also require cover.
“Historically we were able to utilise loan drivers from other parts of the business when necessary, however as everyone is experiencing the same skills shortage, we’re not currently able to do that.
“It is obviously in our interest, as well as that of our customers, for our services to be operational. We are doing our absolute best to cover as many journeys as possible during this time. We expect service provision to improve following the festive period.
“We are sorry to hear that some passengers were unable to travel due to cancelled journeys.
“We publicise cancellations on our website ahead of the day in question to allow customers to plan ahead, and we also share them on our Twitter page, @StagecoachEScot
“You can find our latest service updates on our website: https://www.stagecoachbus.com/regional.../east-scotland”
