Bus stop timetables concern

The issue was raised on Tuesday, August 23, by Tweeddale East ward’s Councillor Robin Tatler at an online meeting of Tweeddale Area Partnership.

Mr Tatler said he had been approached by commuters who had raised the topic of all bus stops having their timetables removed and replaced instead by QR codes.

He said: “I’m getting quite a bit of feedback from people who are perhaps not able to use that technology, or not familiar with how it works, asking why we don’t have bus timetables any more.”

In response, Gordon Grant, Scottish Borders Council’s principal transport officer, accepted that the situation was “not ideal”.

He said the change had been imposed as the result of multiple changes to bus service timetables during the Covid-19 pandemic and the difficulty of getting around all the bus stops to change the information, sometimes on a weekly basis.

But he said it was hoped that timetables could return if and when the situation stabilised.

Mr Grant said: “Throughout the pandemic we had been getting a significant number of changes to bus services and the challenge for us was that we have got so many bus stops across the region and we had one person who does the information.

“We were getting changes to timetables on a weekly basis and there are a thousand or so bus stops across the region we have to go round and put information up.

“There is that challenge for people without the capability on their phone to look at QR codes.

“We are hoping the situation will stabilise and we will be able to put the timetables back up but because of the drivers shortage the code is a necessity. It’s not ideal but at the moment it’s the only way to keep the information live.”