Revamped shelter but no buses
In readers' letters, August 22, Andrew Hankey, of Ellesmere, didn't quite get it right. He says the issue is "efficiency". Whilst I totally agree with his translation of the word, efficiency it is not.
It cannot be efficient when the customer gets no satisfaction - and BT is not the only culprit.
Arriva, our local bus provider, runs a service called Amberline. The routing of this service was a replacement to the South Telford Circular, which it still claims to be on the destination boards of the buses.
Amberline was however a variation on the original routes - an improvement, I will agree, for the most part.
The No 22 bus runs over the whole route in an anticlockwise direction while the No 11 runs clockwise except on Sutton Hill. Why?
I have been in contact with lots of people over this issue including the customer care manager and Arriva Midlands managing director. I think I would get more sense from a man in the moon.
The current routing means that anyone living on Sutton Hill cannot make the simple journey from one side of the estate to the other by bus.
To top this, when they routed the bus round the estate, they abandoned the Sutton Hill Centre bus stop (a very new facility) where lots of money had been spent on total refurbishment including the roadway turning circle and the junction of Stonedale with Sutton Way just to give the buses priority.
But what this really meant was the abandonment of Severn Walk, the local sheltered housing complex.
How galling it must be to see a lovely bus stop from their windows, yet face a half-mile hike to catch a bus.
All Arriva can say is that the increase in the number of passengers proves they were right. They have no interest in improving the service to their customers.
They are a private company with no wish to become a public service company.
W M Crosbie, Telford
