Arriva says it is “hopeful” changes this month will improve Watford’s buses, despite three consecutive missed services in one morning.
A woman from Abbots Langley complained to the operator yesterday (January 17) after she waited in "freezing conditions" for over an hour alongside school children and a pensioner.
After three no-shows from the number 10 in Abbots Langley, she eventually gave up and went home.
An Arriva spokesperson said: “The situation experienced this morning for the Watford 10 was in fact related to a mix of unforeseen one-off engineering issues at the depot, further impacted by the severe weather we’ve been experiencing in the region.”
In December the operator highlighted a number of “small, yet efficient” service changes that would come into effect early this month to improve services after regular cancellations were causing misery.
Among them will be cutting the 357 service covering Harpenden to Borehamwood and relocating drivers to specific Watford buses.
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The 10 and 20 from Abbots Langley and Hemel Hempstead to Watford were highlighted as particularly poor by passengers.
The company has said these changes are now in place, adding: “We’re only a few weeks into the new timetable and we’re hopeful that the changes will continue to help with overall service delivery across Watford.”
However, the woman whose journey was disrupted called the weather “a poor excuse” and said she still felt there needed to be more communication, particularly through the app.
Asked whether she believed recent changes would improve services, she said: “Let’s see if it turns up tomorrow. I won’t hold my breath”.
Arriva insists the core problem is industry-wide staff shortages, which is understood to have several underlying causes.
Among them are employees leaving for incentivised HGV driver roles, generally quitting for better-paid jobs, and leaving the industry post-Covid.
It added that although training new staff can take several months, it has been undertaking a recruitment drive which is “welcoming new drivers into Watford regularly”.
While new drivers undergo training Arriva says it has been utilising agency drivers to boost its "on the road" capacity.
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