Residents claim Mansfield's ‘unreliable' bus service is turning them to 'costly' taxis

Residents say they are ‘sick to death’ of cancellations by Stagecoach – more than 100 services to and from Mansfield have been cancelled today, Tuesday, September 20.

Sharon Marriott Smith, aged 35, from Bellamy Road, said: “I'm sick to death of this bus being cancelled all the time.

“My children use the bus to The Samworth Church Academy as it is the only one from our area that goes there.

“Last week I spent a costly £90 on taxis due to bus journey disruptions.

“It’s affecting my children's education when they are several hours late, then they are being left on the way home too.

“My son has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and can't walk home everyday as he's got no road sense and has been run over twice before.

“He is having to wait around for a later bus in the morning. It is becoming a nightmare.”

Ben Gibson, from Forest Town, said: “I went to Mansfield bus station and my bus to Forest Town had multiple hour delays.

“The workers in the station said it was due to driver shortages, but there were lots of drivers hanging around – it does not make sense and only seems to be getting worse.

“Most journeys are affected by delays.”

Natasha Fry, from Oak Tree, said despite the bus delays she wanted to praise the bus drivers as they have always been friendly and helpful amid travel disruptions.

Coun Ben Bradley, Mansfield MP and leader of Nottinghamshire Council, said: “It’s really noticeable that, as an MP, I’m increasingly getting complaints about the consistency of Stagecoach’s services.

“We all know that both financially and in terms of staffing, it’s not an easy time for businesses in all sorts of sectors, but residents really are noticing and feeling the frustration about their bus routes in particular.

“Government has stepped in to provide some more financial help, to try and maintain existing bus routes for a bit longer, as unfortunately passenger numbers still have not picked up to pre-covid levels.

“And so many services are losing money.

“That gives some space, in the short term, for these companies to consider how they might make routes sustainable and support communities.

“From a council perspective, we recognise how important these services are to a lot of resident.

“And we are looking at new and innovative ways of ensuring that every community has access to sustainable services for the long term.

“We’ve started that work by rolling out our pilot schemes for on demand, responsive bus services, including in Mansfield in the evenings.

“These kinds of projects, supported by the Government’s Bus Innovation Fund.

“This will help us to tackle this in the long term, along with the new powers and funding for public transport that will become available to us through our devolution deal from 2024.”

Stagecoach has been approached for a comment.

Staff shortages have been reported across the transport industry, including HGV and bus drivers over the past year.