A Newport-on-Tay youth worker is risking his life crossing a dual carriageway to get to a bus stop, after Stagecoach cut local services.
Stagecoach removed the X54 service from Newport-on-Tay during the network change.
Now, a youth worker has been risking his safety crossing the busy dual carriageway beside the Forgan roundabout in order to reach his stop.
29-year-old Chris Cameron is a youth worker with Newport-on-Tay church.
He works with youngsters from primary seven to sixth year.
Chris said that the kids he works with are “scared” of making this journey to the bus stop.
“It’s horrendous,” he said.
“And I’m an able-bodied person. I can’t imagine what a youngster, disabled or elderly person, feels like.
“It’s hard enough to get about as it is without them taking services away.
“Something’s got to give.”
‘You’ve just got to go for it’ to reach the Newport bus stop across the dual carriageway
Chris has non-epileptic attack disorder, meaning he is prone to seizures.
He has been reliant on public transport for the last three years and said things are just getting worse.
Chris often takes young people of the Newport-on-Tay church on outings.
“If we want to go to Dundee, we have to cross the dual carriageway at Forgan roundabout, and the single fifty-mile-an-hour carriageway,” he said.
“There are no traffic lights.
“You’ve just got to go for it.”
Issues with the Stagecoach bus service are not new.
There was backlash this summer as a number of services were cut around Tayside and Fife, with campaigns to keep the services intact.
And although Moffat and Williamson recently picked up Stagecoach’s slack with the 77 service to keep parts of Fife connected, Chris said it still isn’t good enough.
“I’m not comfortable taking the kids across that carriageway,” he said.
“Just stand there for five minutes and you will see what we have to go through.”
Newport-on-Tay X54 bus service cut because of ‘low passenger numbers’
Stagecoach did not give sufficient warning about the cut, according to Chris.
He said: “My main concern is the fact that they’ve changed the X54 without prior consultation.”
Chris claimed Stagecoach “hid” the fact that this service would be removed.
A spokesperson for Stagecoach East Scotland denied these claims and said that low passenger numbers are behind the cuts.
She said: “Service X54 was withdrawn from Newport-on-Tay due to low passenger numbers.
“The route was revised during our recent network change.
“We held a consultation for all aspects of the network change prior to the changes being finalised, which was advertised on [sic] bus and on our website.”
Bus companies and council must ‘work together’ to provide ‘safe and accessible’ bus stops in Fife
However, the positioning of bus stops is the responsibility of the local council.
Councillor Allan Knox, Lib Dem for Fife council, said teamwork is required to make the necessary changes.
The Tay Bridgehead councillor said he has “run the gauntlet” and crossed the dual carriageway himself many times.
“It wasn’t my favourite thing to do,” he said, “but it’s not about me.
“I’m relatively mobile and can run quite quickly if needs be.
“Both the council and the bus providers need to work together to ensure that there is adequate provision of stops in safe and accessible places if we are truly to have a public transport system that works for everyone.”
Conversation