Plea for return of 'vital' Shrewsbury hospital bus as residents miss appointments
A Shrewsbury community leader is to meet with transport bosses to plead for a "vital" hospital route to be reinstated.
The number 11 Arriva bus that served Royal Shrewsbury Hospital's treatment centre was stopped last April when the company made cuts, and a boss said it would cost £150,000 to run.
Councillor Alex Wagner, Bowbrook's Lib Dem representative, said he has been told of several vulnerable residents facing missed appointments and being unable to get home in the cold, wet weather.
Next week he will meet bosses at Arriva to make the case for reinstating the route, and has urged people affected to get in touch.
Councillor Wagner said: “We all know the stresses that bus services are under, with a severe lack of drivers. It remains important that residents’ views are heard and can be shared on this vital link to Royal Shrewsbury, Gains Park, Copthorne and the town centre.
“My inbox and postbag are currently full of stories of missed appointments and vulnerable residents left unable to get home in cold and wet weather. One 82 year-old woman waited for nearly two hours at the station with no communication at all, and missed an important hip operation check-up as a direct result.
“I’m asking residents to get in touch with me if they have any experiences of using buses in Shrewsbury to share, or any suggestions for improving the route. I want to feed these back to Arriva and Shropshire Council to stress the importance of a reliable service for the hospital.”
The meeting comes after Councillor Wagner wrote to Arriva back in August to complain about the reduced reliability. He is demanding action from senior officials over complaints that residents trying to get to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital are being left without a service.
"People in this town should be able to get to work, get to NHS appointments and get home without the stress and strain of a service not turning up," he said.
"I want to meet with senior staff at Arriva and to work with them on fixing this.
"We cannot keep having patients and residents unable to get home or get to hospital appointments. Frankly, as it stands, the service is a shambles and is letting people down."
Arriva has blamed the issue on driver shortages and said a "highly targeted" recruitment campaign is under way.
Councillor Wagner can be contacted on alex.wagner@shrewslibdems.org or on 07703 790054.
