Taxi bill racked up by carer

A Crieff-based care worker who depends on bus services has hit out at continuing service disruption.

In December, Perth-based transport operator Stagecoach said it needed to find an extra 21 drivers to operate some of its services in and around Perth as planned.

Daily alerts by Stagecoach East Scotland social media continue to flag up service cancellations, which can range from several dozen to a high of 98 on December 17.

Chathurika Vimarshani De Alwis said she had to go by taxi from Perth to the care home in Crieff where she works twice recently.

She explained: “On Tuesday, December 20, and Monday, December 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, [which can be viewed by searching for] @StagecoachEScot.

“You can find our latest service updates on our website: https://www.stagecoachbus.com/regional.../east-scotland”

Stagecoach also explained that, in December, the company was under capacity by 21 bus drivers – half the number of two months before.