passengers

left waiting

.. for an

explanation

Arrivederci to service that just caused too much trouble

PASSENGERS were puzzled when their usually reliable bus suddenly became erratic.

After years of arriving on time, some days the 288 turned up in Canute Place - and some days it didn't.

The mystery was finally solved when it emerged that the bus had been deleted from the timetable - but bosses hadn't told all their drivers.

"Some buses were going in and some buses weren't," said Clr Wilson Hamman, who regularly used the service. "That is where all the confusion started."

Yesterday (Tuesday) Sue Hackett, of Cheshire County Council, confirmed that the stop had been deleted from Arriva's bus timetable.

"We'd had ongoing problems of time-keeping because of the traffic congestion," she said.

"Just by keeping buses away from Canute Place we feel a saving has been made." But yesterday it emerged that Cheshire County Council was still sending in two buses a day - during the evening rush-hour.

"I expect that is to pick up people who work in the shopping centre," said Ms Hackett.

But Clr Hamman wasn't convinced of their logic.

"They talk about buses not being able to cope with traffic congestion yet the number 50 bus, which is twice the size of an Arriva bus, is still going into Canute Place. Where is the sense in that?"

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.