Reader's letter: Horsham Metrobus is leaving passengers stranded

I am writing this open letter to Metrobus in the hope that airing the issue in your paper might effect some change as regards Metrobus's operations.

Yes, they might be having problems recruiting drivers – and yes, this might affect bus services – but this cannot excuse their woeful lack of communication which continues to leave passengers stranded at Horsham bus station waiting for the 98.

In this case (which is by no means my first), the 98 should revert to an hourly service at 8.42am on a Friday, but on September 30, through Metrobus's efforts, this was brought forward to 7.17am which left passengers bewildered.

Even on the most windswept platforms in the most far-flung reaches of the British Isles, when a train is cancelled there is an announcement to this effect. It doesn't bring the trains back, but at least passengers are kept informed.

However, at Horsham bus station they're left to exchange glances and theories as to why the 7.47am hasn't arrived. Has it been cancelled or is it merely late? Should we give it another few minutes or cut our losses and find other means, who's to know?

The so-called information boards are an exercise in misinformation.

For example, on Friday, September 30, one was simply the early timetable for October 1 while the other still hadn't been updated since March as it was showing GMT and carried bus times which had no basis in fact whatsoever.

To try and get a grip on reality, I spoke to the driver of the 98 to Roffey and asked whether the 98 to Southwater was on its way.

He replied yes, and in a manner of speaking he was correct because, some 30 minutes later, he appeared in exactly the same bus, except this time going to Southwater!

Maybe I didn't express myself clearly enough or perhaps all staff close ranks when there's a problem?

And the Metrobus app, which is supposed to show real times, is either a work of fiction of which Agatha Christie would be proud and is not fit for purpose or between Horsham rail and bus stations there exists the Sussex equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle which swallows 98 buses without leaving a trace.

I'm certain my experience isn't unique and others have been puzzled as to how a buses which are shown as 'due' suddenly disappear off the face of the earth.

Metrobus, I live in Southwater with an S, not Backwater with a B.

Get your communications improved please or, better still, stick to your published timetable.

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