One protester said: “Minehead is not in the Dark Ages now, although with this bus service, you wouldn’t know it.”
First Bus’s 28 service is the only public transport link between Minehead and Taunton and this week passengers took to social media to complain that while they appreciated that the Covid pandemic could affect schedules, they felt there should be better updates about delays and cancellations. One post said: “I don’t think there’s a person who relies on the bus who hasn’t stood there for an hour waiting for one that never showed up. Now the service is busier after Covid restrictions have been relaxed, delays and cancellations are even worse.”
A spokesperson for First Bus, which operates Buses of Somerset, said yesterday that the problems stemmed from a combination of driver shortages and Covid causing drivers to have to self-isolate.
This week drivers confirmed to the Free Press that ever-increasing Covid cases were stretching resources to the limit. One said: “At the moment we have eight route 28 drivers off with Covid and more report they are positive every day.
“It is a real struggle to cover the day’s services. We are all doing extra time, including 12-hour days starting at 5.30am. We are also starting to pick up more people, which means buses get full earlier along the route.”
Local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said he had been ‘deluged with complaints’ about the Minehead-Taunton service and was seeking a meeting with First Bus to try to improve the situation.
“Things get worse when Butlin’s visitors are travelling and the buses are full before they leave Taunton or Minehead,” he said.
“Surely it should be possible to put on relief buses in this situation? When the service works, it’s fine. When it doesn’t, it’s beyond a joke.”
Mr Liddell-Grainger added that residents had told him that buses are cancelled without notice or drive past if they are full. “This means that many people have waiting times of up to an hour for the next available bus,” he said.
Minehead passenger Tony Ayr said: “I can somewhat understand the random cancellations at the moment, with Covid, but what I can’t accept is their total inability to provide any form of notice.
“Their app is capable of showing cancellations. Their social media sporadically lists them, but with no consistency.
“We pay a fortune for our tickets, so why can’t First Bus pay for someone to be in their office keeping us updated?
“They seem to forget that this is a rural area with a lot of vulnerable people. In winter, it can be horrible stuck in the rain and cold waiting for a bus that never turns up. It must be horrendous for elderly folk.”
Sandra Bisp said: “I’ve been let down on numerous occasions,” and cited two incidents on the same day when a bus did not turn up.
Nicola Powles added: “This bus service has the monopoly here. You’d think they’d run a better service and the prices are awful!”
Watchet resident Andy Hall said: “The best thing about passing my driving test was not having to wait for a bus. No-one in their right mind would give someone a job in Taunton who only had the 28 bus as a means of getting there.”
In one Facebook post, a Minehead resident showed a picture of a stationary First Bus saying: “That’s my bus. It’s been sat there since 5.30pm and it’s now 5.50pm.”
Another added: “I don’t think when I retire I will stay here - not because I don’t love it but unless things change with public transport I would feel trapped here.”