A BUS company is coming under increasing fire from passengers after a series of cancellations to services in Swindon.

Stagecoach West says the problems are caused by Brexit, the pandemic and the DVLA taking significantly longer to process bus driver licences. 

One bus user, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Adver: “It is, in short, a complete and utter shambles at this precise moment in time. It’s never been great, but these past few months have been a complete joke. 

“The sheer amount of cancellations each day is staggering. Not just the odd one but dozens at a time daily, hourly and not just in Swindon. 

“You need only look at their Twitter feed to see the sheer volume of complaints. Vulnerable people and children being left stranded with no way of getting home. Forcing some to pay for taxis they can’t afford. 

“They have blamed Covid, Brexit and staffing issues but to the customers, that’s a bit of a cop out. 

“This cannot be allowed to continue. Some people have no choice unfortunately but to rely on public transport, as I do to travel to work and back each day.”

Stagecoach West managing director Rachel Geliamassi said: “We are continuing to run over 95 per cent of our timetabled services and have firm plans in place to return to full services as quickly as possible. 

“But, as is the case with many organisations and sectors in the economy, the pandemic is continuing to impact our business in the short-term. Issues beyond our control, such as Brexit and the DVLA taking significantly longer to process bus driver licences, have also added to these challenges.

“We are working round the clock to recruit people into our team and train them in the roles that we need, and we are seeing a strong demand for jobs. 

“However, it takes an average of 10 weeks for a professional bus driver to be fully trained and any delays outside our control in the processing of licences means we cannot get them on the road on our network as fast as we would like.

“We apologise to our customers in Swindon who have been affected by any short-term service changes, and we would like to thank them for their patience with our frontline teams whilst we work to get our new drivers on the road. 

“Where we do have to make changes to our bus services, we are providing live updates to our customers through our social media channels."

A DVLA spokesperson said:

“We are prioritising HGV and PCV provisional licence applications which are being issued in around two weeks. More complex transactions, for example if medical investigations are needed as part of a driving licence application, may face longer delays.

“There are delays in processing paper applications due to recent industrial action and social distancing requirements, which means that we have fewer staff than usual on site.”