Watchdog slaps Lothian Buses with £10k fine for services that go too early

LOTHIAN Buses has been fined £10,500 and criticised by Scotland's traffic commissioner after one in seven services was found to turn up too early.

The council-owned firm was called to take part in its first ever public inquiry after a probe into its punctuality.

Inspectors from the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency carried out a monitoring exercise and found that of 303 services, 23 were late and 44 arrived early.

Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken handed down the fine and said bus chiefs had little excuse.

"All bus operators know that punctuality and reliability are what the customers need. They need to know that the bus will turn up when expected.

"In the current case what stood out was the number of early runnings - for whilst late running can be caused by congestion, road works or other disruption there rarely is an excuse for early running for nothing has served to hold the bus back."

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Lothian Buses' managing director, Ian Craig, told the inquiry about the challenges being posed by the city's tram works, and said the company had built extra slack into its timetables earlier this year, expecting delays caused by the ongoing works.

However, the hold-ups did not turn out to be as bad as expected, leaving many of the company's buses running ahead of schedule.

The commissioner, who had the power to fine the bus firm up to 385,000, said she would not take any action against its licence, leaving it free to continue serving the city.

The monitoring exercise was carried out after just one complaint was received about the bus company.

Between February 17 and March 1 inspectors had monitored the number 45, which runs between Riccarton Campus and Hanover Street, the 27 from Hunter's Tryst to Silverknowes, the 4 from Hillend to Asda at the Jewel and the 16 from West Garth Avenue to Silverknowes.

Lothian Buses said it had now included an audible alarm in its "sophisticated" Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) device, which would alert drivers to the fact they were running ahead of schedule.

Mr Craig said: "We are absolutely determined to minimise early running to the absolute greatest extent and that's the reason for introducing the audible warning.

"Personally, it (the public inquiry) has happened on my watch and that's incredibly disappointing on a personal level.

"Lothian Buses is held within a very high regard. We are not familiar with attending public inquiries.

"It is with a feeling of surprise that we are here, and even more so that the monitoring was the result of one single complaint and not, as previously suggested, a raft of complaints."

He added: "We fully accept the Traffic Commissioners findings and affirm our commitment to providing the highest level of service and reliability for our bus passengers."