Anger over poor bus services in Walsall

Councillors representing areas such as Rushall, Walsall Wood and Pelsall said they have received complaints from residents in their areas who have been forced to wait over an hour due to services not being met.

Regular bus user Councillor Vera Waters said she had been told around 20 drivers have left National Express West Midlands in the last six months as they felt the company was not listening to their concerns.

National Express apologised to all passengers who had experienced delays and added it was working to recruit new drivers and retaining experienced ones.

Councillor Waters, who represents Rushall-Shelfield, said the worst hit services were ones such as numbers 7 and 8, which run every half hour.

And she added the frustrations are exacerbated by seeing several buses serving other areas turning up at the station together.

She said: “I travel to Wolverhampton for work and go to Walsall and Birmingham for meetings so I’m using buses all the time.

“What’s happening a lot of the time is those buses such as the number 7, 8 and 9 aren’t turning up so people are having to wait for an hour.

“And that’s getting people late for appointments, for school, for work or getting home.

“A bus driver told me they’ve had 20 old regular drivers leave National Express in the past six months. I know three drivers left three weeks ago.

“What the drivers are saying is they are not being listened to about general issues they have working there.

“You see the driver training buses out all the time. When you are losing drivers who’ve worked on those buses for years, there’s got to be something wrong.

“They are leaving because it is far too much hassle and they are the ones getting the blame from passengers when the buses are late when its the bosses not resetting services.

“The combined authority and National Express promote ‘get out your car and get on the bus’ because of climate change but what encouragement do people have when they are waiting ages for buses?

“I’ve spoken to people who have cars and decided to try the bus but said never again after a bad experience.”

Pelsall councillor Garry Perry said he has been informed of issues from residents in his ward for a number of months.

He said: “One of things frustrating residents is the number of buses on some services, you have two or three of them in a queue of traffic.

“They are not being hit by driver shortages. It’s those services which are not as frequent where we are seeing most of the problems.

“Clearly there is an issue but I’m wondering how widespread it is and whether it is affecting other parts of Walsall and the region.

“There are still a lot of people using bus services and, if that is their best form of transport, we want them to operate both in a way that’s reliable and regular enough.”

A National Express West Midlands spokesperson said: “We are so proud of our brilliant bus drivers who are doing their absolute best to get our customers where they need to go.

“Like all bus operators we are affected by the national bus driver shortage but we are working really hard to be an employer of choice and attract the very best people. Sometimes services are delayed or cancelled due to the shortages and we are sorry to every single customer who has had that experience.

“We know our services are a lifeline for many and we are doing all we can to recruit and train more drivers, as well as retaining talented and experienced drivers.”

She added they were hosting a recruitment drive at present and anyone interested could find out more at careers.nationalexpress.com.