Buses and the rural community

On Thursday I had to do a supermarket run. There was not much that I needed; Netty* Roll, Washing up liquid and Cat Litter, but I also had a few things I wanted to get as well. Further, I had some vouchers sent by the supermarket that meant that by careful shopping I could make the most of what I wanted with what I normally buy. My bill came to less than twenty pounds and this was reduced by a quarter using the vouchers. However, my reason for telling you this is not to highlight what a bril fab shopper I am but that I would probably not be using this supermarket at all if it were not for the free bus that the supermarket provides.



When I first moved to the village two and half years ago, its that long that the wood mouse has existed, I soon learned of the bus. As choices are limited in the village, the need to travel into town or to the metro centre for a supermarket was obvious. Not least because the fares to Consett, Newcastle or Metro Centre, could add to the food bill. This is something the local shops exploit and are very unpopular as a result. Therefore without that free bus I could only make the trip to the supermarket when I needed to make a significant spend to justify the fares too.



This was made worse when last year there was a significant hike in the fares when the oil price increased. However, even with the oil price having collapsed as a result of the recession at the start of this year the fares increased yet again. The cost of travelling anywhere out of the village is now over thirty percent higher than it was when I first moved here. Additionally the service is poorer.



Yesterday when going to one of the nature reserves, my fellow passengers at the bus stand were complaining about the service. One gentleman said that they don’t need a timetable but a calendar. I understand what he means, as one day a few weeks ago, I had to wait an hour and half for a bus, three having been cancelled. Further, it is not uncommon to be on a bus that breaks down and have to wait for the next to come along and collect us. For anyone who has to rely on public transport for work this could cause people to loose their jobs. This makes it impossible for people to give up or reduce their use of cars.



Coming back home on Friday, the bus broke down. One of my fellow passengers had suffered the same fate five times in the last two weeks, and it was the same problem the engines overheating. Is it something as simple as the drivers not topping up the water? I just don’t know. I do feel sorry for the drivers as they often get the abuse for the failings of the Bus Company. But it is clear that the service is suffering and it is the people without cars that suffer the most.



Now returning to the free supermarket bus, while on the whole the service is reliable, there has been an increasing problem with the driver. The driver who did the job when I first moved to the village was happy, helpful and well mannered. The current driver I nicknamed "Laughing Boy", yes the name is Ironic and other villagers have adopted the name too. Should I have copyrighted that? The biggest problem is that he often is in a hurry to get away especially when people have done there shopping. Not a problem when everyone is back on the bus, but this has lead to him on more than one occasion leaving before everyone who came had even left the shop. He would say that they were getting a taxi back. Occasionally people will do that, so it was difficult to know if he was just being impatient. Also on two occasions we the villagers have had to tell him that he was nearly leaving someone behind. The last pertinent detail is that we actually have an hour (its more in the morning) to do our shopping.



Well on Thursday the driver went too far. We were on the bus waiting for one more passenger, an elderly lady of over eighty. A good ten minutes before the bus was due to leave the driver announced that he was not waiting any longer and started to drive out of the supermarket car park. The howls of protest from the villagers were unanimous. He did return and the poor woman was collected. But the anger of most of the people on the bus was evident in the expressions of people’s faces.



To one woman I said that I was going to write a letter of complaint. In fact I have written two, one to the Bus Company and one to the supermarket. As the supermarket pays for this service and the attitude of the driver has stopped some people using the service, this is not speculation as people have told me this awhile ago.



While it may add to my shopping costs, I will not use the free bus again unless or until this driver is removed from the service. I am not alone in this as two other people are saying the same thing. Further, as the supermarket is not the closest to Consett town centre and another is, the supermarket will loose my business too.



Personally I am disgusted by the actions of this driver, there was no way that the elderly woman could have walked to the bus station with her shopping. In a village like Chopwell we need public transport and the elderly and the poor need services like the shopping bus, as do all the other villages it serves. But these transport services are exactly that, services. The problem is that the companies that run the bus services have forgotten that.