STAGECOACH have come in for a lot of stick in the Highlands over the past few years, some of it perfectly justified.

There are still reports from time to time of buses simply not turning up and complaints persist over some irregular time-keeping.

The withdrawal of a half-hourly bus service to the Black Isle village of Rosemarkie it was only reinstated after a storm of protest ealier this year has thrust the operator back into the limelight for the wrong reasons again.

However disappointing the decision may be, the fact remains that Stagecoach has a business to run and as such has been monitoring actual usage of the service in question.

How many times have we heard a "use it or lose it" warning brandished when the future of a transport service comes into question?

It's not just confined to bus routes either with a number of fragile plane routes to and from Inverness axed down the years for similar reasons.

In its statement on the issue, Stagecoach makes reference to the knock-on impact on reliability on other routes in the area.

Quite how that pans out is not clear, although what is not in dispute is that the operator still has reliability issues to resolve on a number of its routes.

If public transport providers are going to provide a viable alternative to the sky-rocketting cost of private motoring, these are the very issues that need to be addressed.