Anger at bus cuts as students struggle to reach Hereford colleges
The Stagecoach-operated 33 bus service from Ross-on-Wye has been subsidised by Herefordshire Council
Young people and their parents are angry at the loss of a bus which has left some struggling to attend Hereford’s colleges.
The Stagecoach-operated 33 bus service from Ross-on-Wye, which leaves at 7.35am and arrives at the city railway station at 8.31, has been subsidised by Herefordshire Council to enable a second service to run concurrently at this peak time.
But with this funding now having ended, the service is reduced to the individual double-decker service.
“This came out of nowhere,” Ross mum Michelle Hughes said.
“Now the buses arrive from Gloucester already full, so when they leave Ross they are crammed in. There are many more stops between Ross and Hereford that it just drives past.”
On the days when her daughter, who did not want to be named, can’t get on the bus, Ms Hughes or her husband have had to take time off work to drive her in, she explained, adding: “We now have an informal car pool for this.”
But she objected also to the extra expense of such trips, given students already pay around a thousand pounds a year for a bus pass.
And she feared that “someone could get hurt” in such crowded buses on Herefordshire’s winding roads, “as there is nothing to hold onto”.
Councillor for Birch ward Toni Fagan said passengers “have been severely let down by Herefordshire Council and Stagecoach”.
“We cannot talk about supporting education, employment and wellbeing whilst leaving students stranded at the bus stop,” she said.
Stagecoach West managing director Chris Hanson said the extra service was only for “the first few crucial weeks” of the academic year, with an expectation that passenger numbers would then return to normal, “in a similar fashion to previous years”.
“We will continue to monitor and keep a track on demand and work with the council where we see a need for extra services,” he said.
Likewise a Herefordshire Council spokesperson said it was working with Stagecoach “to explore options to address these concerns”.
They added: “The student bus pass does not guarantee seats on commercial routes, but we work with operators to predict and meet students’ travel needs wherever possible.”