IT would be wrong to condemn Thamesdown Transport outright over the ending of Service 20.

Unlike certain other public transport providers, it does not take such decisions lightly or to line the pockets of people who already have more money than they could possibly need.

There will be no quaffing of champagne in the boardroom. The money saved will not be used to reward axe-wielding senior executives who don’t travel by bus from one year’s end to the next.

Thamesdown Transport, as an independent organisation wholly owned by the council, is the nearest thing we have to public transport in the old fashioned sense of the term.

When it cancels a service, there is no reason to believe it does so with anything other than a very heavy heart.

Unfortunately, none of this makes a blind bit of difference to the plight of those left out in the cold by the latest cancellation.

For many Stratton senior citizens, Service 20 is a vital connection between them and various locations, notably Great Western Hospital.

Thamesdown Transport correctly asserts that Stagecoach will be able to pick up some of the slack, but a significant number of passengers will remain effectively stranded.

This is quite simply outrageous.

We can only hope that some sort of compromise can be reached for them, even if it involves a smaller vehicle and a drastic reduction in frequency.