Bolton bus users bemoan 'appalling' Diamond bus service

The Bolton News has spoken to three different Diamond customers, each of whom access different services, to understand their experiences.

Wendy Nuttall is an assistant practitioner of Cardiology at Royal Bolton Hospital and has started getting the bus to work from her home in Great Lever as a result of recently injuring her leg.

She said: “It’s been appalling.

"I finish at eight and not home until half nine. It takes longer to get the bus than it does for me to walk.

“I went to Blackpool the other day and got back to Bolton quicker than I get back from work.”

Ms Nuttall, who has worked at the hospital for 22 years, usually gets a lift in to work, but because of shift patterns she has to use public transport for the return journey.

She often has to get a £5 taxi home due to wait times and uncertainty of when the next bus will come, despite paying £18 for a weekly bus ticket.

This means that in a five-day working week she might pay a further £50 on travel.

Diamond buses have frequently been reported to be late

She said: “After a 12-and-a-half-hour shift, I don’t want to walk through a rough area in the dark. It’s not safe, so I get a taxi.”

Ms Nuttall has two different apps to keep her updated – Diamond’s own app and Transport for Greater Manchester’s version.

“The apps are completely off.

"One is saying there’s a bus in four minutes and the other is saying 20. Should I stay? Shall I get a taxi? Should I walk?

“If they made you aware I could accept that.”

Simon Harwood and his daughter, a year eight student at Bolton UCS, frequently rely on Diamond for their work and school commutes.

He said: “On a number of occasions my daughter has called me upset and worried as the bus service she needs to take her to school has been late, but when it has eventually arrived has then has either not stopped or has refused travel due to capacity.”

“The 471 service from Bury to Bolton used to be every 10 minutes, on which is very busy route, however the schedule advertised on their website is not what is provided.”

Simon has had a similar experience, having waited 40 minutes for a bus to turn up only for it to drive straight past a number of angry and frustrated passengers.”

He added: “I myself work in Manchester and due to the disgraceful service provided by Diamond have missed connecting trains resulting in being late for work.

“With an increase in fares this is simply unacceptable, however it appears Diamond Buses are content to treat us with nothing but contempt. After all, what alternatives do we have?”

Another service user, who works in retail in Bolton town centre, catches the 582 bus from Atherton for work.

A long queue of customers waiting for the bus at Bolton Interchange

They said: “All through winter we’ve been left - freezing cold. You’ve got pensioners there, you’ve got women and children there absolutely freezing cold.

“All I’ve been asking for, for months and months and months, is a notice to go up to explain to us that there was no buses so that we would find alternative arrangements, instead of waiting. Many, many times we’ve waited two hours.

“We shouldn’t be paying £64 a month for that service, when we’re paying, and we can’t get home and we’re paying £20 for a taxi.”

They also discussed the wider implications of a poor service, saying: “They’re losing business in the town centre because people are thinking ‘I can’t go into Bolton, I’ll never get home.’

“I’ve set out at half-past-seven in a morning to get to work and I start and nine o’clock, and I’ve just got there at five past nine.

“People are going to lose their jobs.”

All three customers have put in complaints to Diamond, all of which have been met with responses that have been deemed unsatisfactory.

Diamond has defended itself with a lengthy statement which spells out an array of issues it has been facing.

A spokesperson said: “We are committed to providing a quality service for all our customers. We understand our customers’ frustration with the current issues. There are a number of items that are contributing to this, and we would like to take the opportunity to explain some of the challenges that we are currently experiencing.”

The full details of Diamon’s statement can be read below:

Roadworks

Over the last 18 months roadworks have been taking place at the junction of Newport Street/Trinity Street in Bolton. This was to introduce the new cyclops cycling crossing. This set of works on its own has caused significant delays, particular to the 501 service which needs to negotiate these works twice to both enter and exit the town centre.

Unfortunately, these works caused unplannable gridlock within the town centre on a number of occasions and has significantly worsened journey speeds at this junction.

Not long after the completion of these works, another set of roadworks has now appeared again focussing on the junction at Trinity Street/Manchester Road which has resulted in a one lane system both in and out of the town centre on the busiest corridor, once again causing unplannable major congestion.

Roadworks in Bolton town centre

Work to implement the new cycle lane on Bradford Road bridge both entering and leaving the Town Centre, in addition to the works taking place as you enter Bury - Angouleme Way - and then the closure of Wash Lane all over the last 12 months, have meant that our 471 service has been heavily disrupted by major works across two separate boroughs that is too unpredictable to plan around.

We have taken action by reregistering the timetables on a number of occasions to adjust how this service operates to reduce the impact on customers.

Vandalism

We have seen a worryingly huge increase in vandalism to our services.

This has cost us over £60,000 on broken windows alone in the last 12 months due to anti-social behaviour and objects being thrown at our vehicles whilst in service.

We have on occasions had more than 6 windows smashed on one night. This results in vehicles having to be recalled to depot after the incident meaning that it doesn’t operate its intended trip whilst also resulting in the fact that these vehicles are unavailable for service until they are repaired. This could be up to 48 hours after the incident.

Vandalism on a Diamond bus

Vandalism affects our driver retention as some drivers have had enough of the fear of driving through certain areas.

Covid-19

We are continuing to be affected by driver attendance levels due to effects of COVID on a daily basis this has started to worsen over the last month.

Staffing Levels

Like all operators, we are currently operating slightly under the number of drivers we would ideally like to have.

As a company, we offer our own full in-house training for anyone who wishes to join our business as a driver and have recently increased our hourly rate to be one of the highest in Bolton at £13 per-hour.

In the Last month alone, we have employed over 25 trainee and PCV licenced drivers.

In addition, we are also working closely with Job Centre Plus and Bolton college to increase the number of applications for employment roles in our business.

The past two years has seen all industries and Governmental departments production affected by staffing levels and during this long period of time we have faced delays in licence applications being approved.

This means it is taking longer to train new drivers and we are still playing catch up on this. The impact on drivers isn’t just focused on our industry as it has been well published with HGV drivers as well.