North bus seating plan rethink
A STRATEGY to free up seats on the oversubscribed X99 Far North bus service to Inverness, by encouraging Dornoch passengers to take the alternative 25X service instead, has failed.
Bus operator Stagecoach revealed last week that it intended to reduce the number of seats available for online booking on the X99 from Dornoch from seven to two.
However, it has since proved too
expensive to alter the online booking computer system.
The move followed complaints from passengers in Golspie, Brora and Helmsdale, about the difficulty of getting seats on the X99 Thurso to Inverness service, particularly on the early morning bus.
It was claimed a large number of seats were taken up by Dornoch passengers, despite the fact the alternative 25X, which terminates in the town, was available to them.
Dornoch passengers are thought to prefer the X99 because it is a straight through service, whereas the 25X stops at a number of villages before reaching Inverness.
The issue was taken up with Stagecoach by East Sutherland and Edderton ward councillor Graham Phillips and it was agreed to try to limit the online booking from Dornoch. Currently online booking for the X99 is not available from stops south of Dornoch but is unlimited from stops in Caithness and Sutherland — aside from Dornoch where it is restricted to seven.
Stagecoach’s Highland manager Steve Walker this week said that it had not proved possible to bring this figure down to two.
"We discovered that we cannot just limit the online booking to two seats but would have to re-write the whole programme on the computer system, which would cost too much for the benefits it would deliver," he said.
Another meeting is now to be held next Wednesday, 31st October, to discuss alternative solutions to the problem.
Councillor Phillips commented: "Stagecoach discovered that they couldn’t make the change to the computer system that they said they would and that means that we are back to where we started."
Councillor Phillips said it was intended to carry out a survey in a bid to gauge passenger demand and possibly make a financial case for a second bus to be added to the Far North route.
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