Help students get to lectures on time

I was absolutely delighted to read the letter of Mr Chris Beezley in your paper dated October 4, (Students campaign against U1 route). Chris raises absolutely pertinent questions and I am equally disgruntled to see the worsening peculiar situation every day while commuting to the university.

I see a serpentine queue of students, staff and residents of Bathwick hill every single day at almost every bus stop and First Bus and the council need to take urgent steps to resolve the issues.

I heard James Freeman, managing director of First West of England on Radio Bristol and while he did offer an apology to the commuters but he remarked, ‘It might take a few weeks to resolve the issues’! Few weeks? Why, Mr Freeman? Did we not all know that the new term will start at the university from the end of September? Why no proper anticipation was made in the first place?

Mr Freeman puts the blame on the lack of number of drivers. If that was the case, why were drivers not recruited in advance?

There is no proper timetable information along the new busroutes of U1 at many places and there are no proper bus stands either. During the coming winter, with chill and rain, the students and commuters would find it very difficult to wait at these bus stops.

My colleague at the university tweeted, ‘This service is a bad joke. I’ve been waiting longer for a bus to appear than it took to get from Frome to Bath. That’s lost workload time. So what are the terms for review of your contract, and how can we make that happen?’

Residents at Bathwick and students/staff members are absolutely gutted with U1 services. U1 no longer goes to the city centre and bus number 10 does not run after 5pm on weekdays and there is no service on weekends.

This has caused tremendous problems for the residents who do not want to rightly take their cars in the city centre to contribute to the rising air-pollution in the city.

The First Bus operator’s promise and effort to improve the matter has made no difference and the situation is worsening day after day. Buses are running late, not turning up and my students can not arrive on time for the morning classes. First and the council needs to urgently look into this matter. Dr Yukteshwar Kumar University of Bath Academic and Course Director