A 77-year-old man stood in front of a bus for 10 minutes in a “pensioner’s protest” as part of a campaign to get bosses to change its route through Telford.

William Crosbie claims the Amber Line route leaves hundreds of elderly people faced with the prospect of long walks through Sutton Hill to get to bus stops, shops and a doctors’ surgery.

Arriva withdrew its previous services, which ran through Sutton Hill centre, and introduced the new one, which does not, in November 2002.

Arriva bosses say they are considering a route change but claim Mr Crosbie’s actions are not helping the situation.

Yesterday Mr Crosbie boarded the bus at Telford town centre at about 1pm and bought a ticket for Sutton Hill, which is still marked “Sutton Hill centre”, for the old route. He said he would ride until it reached his “proper” destination, then travelled around its full route twice, back to the town centre.

He continued round again as far as Sutton Way where, at about 3.30pm, he got off and blocked it from continuing.

Mr Crosbie, who lives in Sutton Hill, has been campaigning for a route change for some time and has put his concerns to the bus company and Telford & Wrekin Council. He said he was fed up with being turned down so he had decided to take direct action.

“I had a meeting with two of Arriva management, but I don’t think they are interested,” he said. “Now I have made the point we will see what happens from there. At least it will bring it to their attention. I shall certainly take it further if necessary and I have lots of letters of support.”

Mr Crosbie said that worst hit by the change were more than 100 people living in the Severn Walk sheltered housing scheme, who were minutes from the centre stop but now had to walk about half a mile.

Keith Myatt, an Arriva spokesman, said: “We are aware of this person’s request and we are considering the possibility. This action does not assist his cause and causes inconvenience to other bus users.”

Mr Crosbie said: “I stopped the bus for about 10 minutes then moved on.”

He added that the elderly people were those who suffered most.

“They can see the centre bus stop from their windows but still have to trek half a mile or so to get a bus.”

He claimed the change was made to take the centre out of the route just weeks after improvements were made to the bus stop.

“It was a total waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said. “I have also written to the Confederation of Public Transport about the issue and to the House of Commons Transport Committee.”

Mr Myatt said no decision had yet been made on whether to make a change to the route.

“The driver reported the incident to his depot and a manager did attend,” he added.

By Dave West

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