Louts making people too scared to use bus station in Dudley

Yobs are intimidating bus passengers and drivers in Dudley by drinking, taking drugs and hurling abuse. Gangs congregating around Dudley Bus Station are leaving some people too afraid to catch a bus during the evening.

Members of the borough's transport users' forum were told about the problems at a meeting last night. And drivers are being verbally abused and even assaulted when they confront passengers who are smoking or drinking, Dudley councillor David Stanley claimed.

The situation has promp-ted calls for greater protection for staff and passengers.

Councillor Stanley told the meeting he had recently felt forced to act when a group of four youths was smoking cannabis at the back of a bus he was travelling on.

He said: "I would not recommend that anyone else does this but I felt like I had to do something.

"I told the driver what was going on, and he was aware of it, so I waited until he pulled over and I went up to them and told them to get off the bus, which they did. I then reported them to the police."

Councillor Stanley said drivers were being put in "difficult situations" and added: "It is not fair for them to have to confront these people."

He added he was "disappointed" that the Safer Travel Policing Team, which deals with anti-social behaviour problems on buses, did not attend last night's meeting. But meeting chairman Councillor Angus Adams said they had faced "staffing pressures" and could not find anyone available.

Rosemarie Plaister, of Russells Hall, Dudley, said she had recently told a bus driver that youths were smoking and shouting abuse and he had "done nothing".

National Express operations manager Raj Mishra said it was likely the driver would have reported the incident back to headquarters and insisted CCTV would have been studied afterwards.