'Teething problems' and 'poor provision' criticised after Biggleswade bus route takeover

Grant Palmer has taken over several services from Herberts Travel, which stopped running its Biggleswade and village routes in May due to "rising costs".

But passengers have raised concerns about "early buses" and "confusing timetables", while Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC) has been criticised for "poor" provision.

The council says the service "maintains the same frequency of hourly loops", while Grant Palmer said "teething problems are inevitable" given the short notice.

Biggleswade resident, Natalie Doig, claimed: "I caught the 73 bus for the first time and although the bus was a few minutes late, the driver was polite and helpful. However, my neighbour who uses the bus every day has said that both mornings, Tuesday and today, the 73 turned up 10 to 15 minutes early and did not wait. Two passengers she knows missed the bus because of it."

Natalie added: "The timetable doesn’t match up with trains in the morning and evening."

Giving his personal opinion, Julian Vaughan, vice chair Bedfordshire Bus User Forum, said: "While it is welcome news that Grant Palmer have stepped in, it remains the case that Biggleswade and the surrounding villages are very poorly served by public transport. The current lack of adequate services increases social isolation and means that buses are simply not a viable option for most commuters.

"The Biggleswade 'town service' is a shadow of its former self, running every two hours rather than hourly. With significant cuts in the government's funding for local councils, CBC's subsidies to support local bus service have remained largely static over the last 10 years, and therefore have been significantly cut in real terms.

"It is time to put people before profits."

A Central Bedfordshire Council spokesman, said: “We are delighted that residents continue to benefit from a town bus service. The new service, operated by Grant Palmer, maintains the same frequency of hourly loops in alternating directions as it has for the past several years. Notably, bus patronage in Central Bedfordshire has surged by 40 per cent over the past year, the second-highest increase in England. Overall, bus usage in Central Bedfordshire has reached more than 87 per cent of its 2019 levels - the fifth highest post-Covid recovery rate in the country.”

Dave Shelley, director of Grant Palmer, said: "In the past few years we have progressively seen other operators withdraw services from the Biggleswade area, and we have on each occasion stepped up to provide replacement services as best we can. We have also worked with CBC to 'top up' those replacement services using public funds where there is a local need but not sufficient passengers to cover costs from fares.

"We had less than four weeks' notice to commence the new services, during which time we had to source and train staff, so some teething problems are inevitable, particularly in the first couple of days, although there is no incident of buses running 10-15 minutes early. The vast majority are on time, and we are monitoring reliability.

"Service 73 is timed to arrive at the rail station at 18 minutes past the hour for a 30 minutes past the hour train to London, and meets it with a 20 minute connection from London."