THE number of people travelling on Swindon’s Bus Company’s vehicles is at around 40 per cent of pre-lockdown levels, the company said.

But the numbers were steadily increasing – and they are expecting more in future weeks.

Managing director Andrew Wickham said: “Our team has been welcoming back a growing number of customers over recent weeks, and we are expecting demand for bus travel to increase still further.”

The company said it had introduced more cleaning runs and installing hand sanitisers on its buses.

Wearing face coverings on buses became compulsory last month. Compliance with the government order has, generally, been good.

But in the wake of the new instruction there were complaints not everyone was following demands to mask up. Swindon’s Bus Company said it expected passengers to wear masks “if they can”.