Who will end the Stagecoach bus monopoly?

Glorious Gloucestershire Fiona Wild took this picture of the waterfall in Sandford Park, Cheltenham

✒ IF you drive, have access to a car, you won’t have the faintest idea what it’s like to rely, wait for a bus or the anger and frustration of this letter.

I suggest you therefore give the bus a go yourself for a month, no cheating, do your bit to ease traffic and pollution and see what it’s like. Then read.

Just a heads up. Stagecoach likes to point out at bus stops that have digital displays - the service shown could be cancelled with short notice. Great. Bet you can’t wait to give it a try.

On services that used to run regularly, every 10 minutes like the 94 linking Gloucester and Cheltenham, it has been increasingly normal for the last nine months to wait for up to an hour and see four or five buses go in the other direction (who cares about poor old pensioners having to stand for so long).

So no shortage of drivers. The drivers themselves have said it’s poor timetabling. Whatever, the reason, there’s a problem and it desperately needs fixing.

Neither the live Stagecoach webpage or app indicate cancellations or delays so they are useless. I have deleted the app as a result.

This begs the question - Why does Stagecoach have a monopoly on the bus service in Gloucestershire and elsewhere in UK?

Please - other transport companies make a bid.

You wouldn’t think we had an air pollution , cancer-causing, to name but one disease, climate crisis.

How painful it is to see that across the water in Germany, for a mere nine euros (£7.57) - you can travel throughout Germany on local/regional trains for a whole month in June, July or August, and the bus and tram service as I know from much experience is a joy.

Even if this practically free service were offered here - who would be interested?

Would you happily wait in all weathers for up to an hour for a bus? No. I didn’t think so.

I was so late for work the other morning I had to cancel a lesson.

What compensation is there from Stagecoach for customers constantly having to endure this frustration? One free bus pass for the week doesn’t compensate.

I cycle whenever I can but for longer journeys this isn’t feasible.

I still haven’t heard what happened to the idea of a trackless electric tram service between Cheltenham and Gloucester which we suggested and was headlined back in the early 2000’s.

Germany help us - at least Megabus, National Express, Arriva - anyone please end the Stagecoach monopoly.