Warwickshire bus services "in meltdown due to lack of drivers" says councillor

Lack of drivers has left bus services in parts of Warwickshire in meltdown according to a councillor who said passengers on key routes were suffering.

Cllr Jonathan Chilvers (Green, Leamington Brunswick) told this week’s Warwickshire County Council communities overview and scrutiny committee that those travelling around Warwick and Leamington had been particularly hard hit.

He said: “Our bus services at the moment seem to be quite frankly in meltdown because of the lack of drivers.

"Even on core trunk routes we have situations where the university bus, which should be every ten minutes, is every 20 and sometimes 40 minutes and it is a similar story with the X17 which is another absolutely crucial service.”

Margaret Smith, head of transport planning at the council, explained that talks were ongoing with the operator.

She said: “It is something that is raised very frequently and we have had conversations with Stagecoach on issues around reliability.

"One of the key components to that is driver availability.

"There have been a lot of people leaving the bus industry and going to drive HGVs because the pay is more attractive.

“Stagecoach has reassured us that they were progressing with driver training and recruitment but the issue is that there is obviously a time lag.

"It is largely for the commercial sector to address those issues.”

Members of the committee heard that it took four months to train a driver but that they could then leave within a day although some of the training costs would be recouped if that happened.

David Ayton-Hill, the council’s assistant director of communities, added: “This is not a unique situation.

"We had a meeting with Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) and it is a problem they are facing as well so we are seeing if we can promote some joint job fairs and using Warwickshire Skills Hub to promote the opportunities.

“There is a huge demand for logistics drivers currently and Warwickshire is particularly sensitive to that.”

And Mark Ryder, strategic director for communities, said the meeting with TfWM has prompted a discussion around ticketing.

He told the meeting: “They are really interested on working with us on ticketing, not only with the bus network but rail as well and linking in with the Metro where there could be single ticket options to cut across the whole region which should, in time, improve pricing for people, consistency and make the whole system simpler by using apps.”