Bus breakdowns cause chaos

BREAKDOWNS and delays have been wreaking havoc on the region’s X74 bus service from Dumfries to Glasgow.

Passengers travelling on the service which goes via Moffat have reported delays of up to two hours.

Moffat resident Robert Opray is regular passenger on the bus but he described a journey back from Glasgow on Tuesday as ‘unusual’ and ‘terrifying’.

Mr Opray said: “Coming back on the 5.10 pm service was an unusual experience. Just short of Abington the bus broke down and the driver pulled into the hard shoulder, and it was a double decker bus so every time a lorry went past the whole thing shook. It was terrifying.

“We sat there for a while and eventually the driver managed to get it going again. We made to Abington services and the bus broke down again and the driver couldn’t get it started again.

“Some people managed to catch the Edinburgh bus back to Dumfries that went via Thornhill, but we were stuck there for over an hour until another bus came.”

Eventually Robert made it back to Moffat after 8 pm, but has since slammed Stagecoach for its handling of the situation, adding: “The driver actually admitted that the double decker we were on is not supposed to go on the motorway because it’s limited to 55 miles per hour and that it was being used because other buses had broken down and needed covered.

“I don’t blame the drivers for what happened, but it’s clear to me that the buses aren’t being serviced regularly and properly, and as a result the wrong buses end up on the wrong road.”

In response, a Stagecoach South Scotland spokesperson yesterday said: “We’re very sorry for the delays experienced by some customers travelling on the X74 this week and understand how concerning disruption of this nature can be.

“On 6 January, the 08:45 X74 service from Dumfries was affected by a coolant leak that required repair while the vehicle was in service, and the 17:10 X74 service from Glasgow experienced a partially frozen air tank as a result of the extremely low temperatures. In both cases, our engineers attended and repairs were carried out as quickly as possible to allow passengers to continue their journeys.

“Passenger safety is always our top priority. Our drivers and engineering teams are fully trained to manage incidents safely and professionally, and our staff have been working extremely hard to keep services moving wherever it is safe to do so, despite difficult weather and road conditions.

“We appreciate our customers’ patience and would like to reassure passengers that we continue to closely monitor vehicles, weather forecasts and road conditions to minimise disruption and maintain safe, reliable journeys on the X74.”