No nEEd For bus paniC Route revamp won’t leave passengers stranded
Transport chiefs have been quick to reassure passengers that a wideranging revamp of the region’s bus timetable won’t mean parts of Perth are left without access to services.
A multitude of changes to Fair City-based Stagecoach’s travel plans for the area come into force on Monday next week following a consultation process.
And while the move has been welcomed by some, those living in the city’s Letham area were said to have been left panicking after Tweedsmuir Road and Kingswell Terrace appeared to have missed off the new timetables.
The roads were previously served by the 10 and 10A buses – which connected Tweedsmuir Road, the Western Edge and Burghmuir – but these have been discontinued and replaced by services 14 and 14A.
These services, which connect the city centre with Almondbank and Ruthvenfield via the hospital hourly on MondaySaturday and once every two hours on Sundays, appeared to bypass the Letham roads on the new timetable.
Kingswell Terrace resident Anne Levy, who will receive her
bus pass on Monday for her 60th birthday, thought she would not be able to use it on the service which has replaced the one that passed her house every day for over 15 years.
She said: “I saw on the bus last week that there were going to be route changes and I went online to find out.
“I downloaded the timetable and could not see buses running on Tweedsmuir Road any more. It took three days for anyone at Stagecoach to tell me why.
“My worried neighbours are aged 76 and 86, and said they thought this would leave them both effectively housebound.”
However, a Stagecoach spokesperson confirmed the route will still cover the two Letham streets, but the stops on the mile-and-a-half stretch in question have been missed out of the new documentation due to “lack of space”.
Douglas Robertson, a commercial director for Stagecoach East Scotland, explained: “Part of our revisions for November 20 involve aligning service provision with the demand we have seen on our network and unfortunately passenger usage of services 10/10A has decreased significantly in recent years.
“We have therefore revised our services so the 10/10A have been withdrawn, but service 14/14A operates a similar route, ensuring passengers continue to have an accessible bus route in the area.
“Customers on Tweedsmuir Road can use service 14A to reach the city centre, as well as Crieff Road Tesco and Ruthvenfield.”
Speaking generally, Mr Robertson added: “Many services in the Perth and Kinross area have not been significantly changed for years, yet the economy and people’s travel patterns have evolved considerably.
“There are a range of traffic and operational conditions affecting us on a daily basis so we’ve constructed our network revisions to consider current and future road developments, customer demand and changing travel habits.
“We received some great feedback from customers and staff during our consultation process and we’ve made a number of improvements to the initial proposals.”
See the full list of changes at www.stagecoachbus.com/ service-updates/