This has been going on for some time now:
A number of Plymouth Citybus services have been cancelled, according to the firm's Twitter feed. More than a dozen services have been hit on routes from the city centre to Plympton, Kings Tamerton, Barne Barton and Whitleigh have been affected along with a number of other routes. In April Plymouth Citybus announced a slew of cancellations, stating that all had been affected because there were not enough bus drivers to run them.
A spokesman for Plymouth Citybus said they were sorry for the changes to their schedule, but it was caused by a combination of driver sickness and roadworks around the Longbridge Road area.
They said: "We're doing everything we can to cover and keep services running wherever possible, and in most cases, there is only around a ten minute wait for the next bus. "We are trying to help our drivers combat genuine sickness but this does take time to sort out. One of the main problems is if one driver goes sick, that can affect a number of services as each shift runs for around 7-8 hours on average and will cover multiple services in one shift.
"If there is more than one driver off sick and there are roadworks at key locations, this can compound the problem. We are doing our very best to keep the cancellations to a minimum and are working hard to provide services to our customers, so please bear with us. We do appreciate our customers' patience." 
Typical of many such messages on their Facebook page yesterday:
We are sorry that we are unable to run the 15:15 service 21A journey from the City Centre to Plympton. The next Plympton service will be 10 minutes later. We apologise most sincerely and thank you for your patience
The company is pathetic and need to be reported traffic commissioner etc. This has been happening for months with no change. If weather is nice or big sporting event etc all we get is cancelled services. Go Ahead are useless I feel Bring back First or let Stagecoach take over as GA don't seem interested since they pushed First out.
ReplyDeleteTrident Open Topper repaired and rubbed down in Milehouse paint shop yesterday
ReplyDeleteany ideas why some of the go-ahead signs have been covered up on the bus window sign?? seen a few darts and enviros with it covered
ReplyDeleteI believe that the problem is not a driver shortage as such. Drivers numbers are good with many joining from Stagecoach recently. However, there is a problem with short term sick leave. Perhaps the World Cup and excellent weather has just exacerbated the problem?
ReplyDeleteThis has never stopped and it always seem to be in the evening. There has been no change since
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