FRUSTRATIONS over missing buses in Lockerbie were aired at last week’s community council meeting.
Veteran community councillor Avril Bailey raised her concerns about the increasing number of missing services within the town. She said: “I use the bus and regularly hear other people saying ‘oh it didn’t come again’. It is mostly the Stagecoach buses, I was out very recently and it was missing, and I waited over an hour in the cold.
“But it’s becoming more regular and they are starting running more and more late from the mid-afternoon, you don’t know if a bus is going to show up when you go to the stop.
“Yes they post it online, well forgive me but not everyone is online. If you go to the bus stop there is no way of knowing if that bus is coming.”
Fellow community councillor Ken Bailey echoed these sentiments, and pointed to the number 81 service from Lockerbie to Dumfries as the most inconsistent, adding: “You can get into Dumfries in the day if you’re lucky. And I know from personal experience that when you go and get the bus back, it may turn up or it may not.
“Sometimes it’s running 20 minutes late or more, that’s no good, that is not the service they advertise on the timetable and they have a responsibility to provide the service they have tendered for.”
Following a discussion, it was decided that the community council will make contact with the bus companies and invite them to a round table discussion in the near future with the hope of finding a solution.
