A NEWLY formed group has been flooded with complaints from dissatisfied Bathurst bus users.
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Members of the Bathurst Bus Community Action Group are collecting signatures to petition Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian to take action over a Bathurst Buslines timetable they say was poorly put together.
Group members Jenni Brackenreg and Ray Wilson said they collected many signatures and complaints at the Howick Street bus interchange yesterday morning.
“We already have around 50 letters to the minister which have been signed and have also had a lot of complaints,” Ms Brackenreg said.
Mr Wilson said most complaints were about the irregularity of routes and the poor timetable information available.
“People are frustrated by the gaps between the services in the afternoon and on the weekend, the poor connectivity between routes and the fact that buses often run late,” he said.
He said people had also complained about Bathurst Buslines’ lack of community consultation, and were disappointed that the timetable did not have a route map and services did not run at the same time every hour.
Ms Brackenreg said the group and many of the people they had spoken to would like to see the timetable return to an improved and expanded version of the former Jones Bros timetable, which was replaced by the Bathurst Buslines timetable last December.
Ms Brackenreg said people needed to raise their concerns with the Transport Minister, as a meeting last month with key stakeholders, including senior executives from the Buslines Group, Transport for NSW and Bathurst Regional Council, had failed to reach a successful outcome.
She said the group had also made an appointment to see Member for Bathurst and Minister for Local Government Paul Toole to further discuss the issue.
“He was very proactive in helping Bathurst get the Bullet [train service] and we hope he will be helpful in helping us improve the timetable,” she said.
Mr Wilson said group members would be collecting signatures at the interchange on Friday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
He challenged Bathurst Buslines group operations manager Geoff Ferris and depot manager Mark Sullivan to go down to the interchange and speak with the people using the bus timetable.
Mr Ferris said that in response to their meeting with the group, Buslines was seeking public feedback about the existing timetable.
“We are seeking feedback from all customers and will report back on feedback next week,” he said.
“Passengers can fill out a form available from the driver and pass it back to him or mail it in.”
Mr Ferris said that a lack of complaints in past months suggested the majority of bus users were satisfied, but said Buslines were more than happy to look into concerns people had on any specific bus routes.