Ullapool - Inverness route back under spotlight
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USERS of a criticised Ross-shire bus service are being asked to provide any specific gripes about it to a woman with the power to drive through changes.
In a letter to be published in this week’s Ross-shire Journal, Traffic Commissioner for Scotland Joan Aitken acknowledges concerns voiced about the Stagecoach service running between Ullapool and Inverness by way of Tore, Dingwall, Strathpeffer, Contin, Garve and Aultguish.
Ms Aitken, who acts as the regulator of local bus services in Scotland, earlier this month conducted a Public Inquiry into the operation of certain services provided in the Highlands by the Stagecoach Group.
Amongst those considered was the number 61 from Inverness to Ullapool. She says local MSPs had forwarded her constituents’ concerns regarding this service.
She said, “Stagecoach have given me helpful information and assurances in relation to the 61 but I am concerned lest there be an ongoing perception of unreliability of the service.
“Accordingly I am reconvening the Public Inquiry on November 4 at 11am in the Town House, Inverness at which I will be considering the reliability and punctuality of this service in the period from September 9 to November 3, 2011.
“Any passenger, carer, driver, tourism professional or other person or body with an interest in this service is invited to write to me giving details – good, bad or observational in relation to the service.”
She makes clear that anyone making a complaint about the service “must provide me with the specific date, time of travel, boarding or alighting point and what the problem was such that it can be investigated with accuracy”.
In an appeal to readers of this newspaper, she says assistance will be much appreciated “in my becoming re-assured in relation to this service which I know is important to the communities it serves”.
She can be contacted by email at Joan.Aitken@otc.gsi.gov.uk or post at Joan Aitken,
Traffic Commissioner for Scotland, The Stamp Office, 10 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG.
