ANGER OVER CUTS; Passengers in outcry at bus links shake-up.

Byline: JOHN SUTTON 

THE CUTTING of bus services across Teesside has prompted widespread anger among passengers.

Arriva, one of Europe's biggest public transport providers, is to axe various routes across Cleveland, including one to the James Cook University Hospital.

Services in some areas will be cut by up to 50% in a move that the public and politicians fear will isolate communities.

A-level student Andrew Anderson, 16, and friends at Prior Pursglove College in Guisborough will be hard hit by the cuts.

Andrew, who lives on Victoria Terrace, Loftus, said: "I don't drive, so use the bus every day to get into college.

"It costs me pounds 16 for a weekly ticket, and there are eight buses an hour I can take, but this is going to be cut back to four an hour." Andrew told the Evening Gazette: "At peak times, they are already packed with people from Prior Pursglove and the Lawrence Jackson School.

"And because Arriva haven't released the timetable, we don't know if the new services will coincide with the start of lessons." But John Fozzard, marketing manager for Arriva North East, said: "Our peak time services between Loftus and Guisborough will not be any different to the current provision." The bus company revealed they would be cutting the X6 service that runs from Stockton to the James Cook University hospital, via Ingleby Barwick and Middlesbrough.

It will run between Yarm and Middlesbrough, with the hospital stop scrapped.

Mr Fozzard said: "We have moved other services to operate along Marton Road to give an improved five minute frequency between the bus station and James Cook. The numbers of passengers using the X6 to travel to the hospital were significantly low." Meanwhile, retired teacher Joyce Thistlethwaite says she relies on the buses for all her transport since being diagnosed with glaucoma last year.

Two days a week, the 77-year-old helps a friend run a pottery shop in Loftus and travels between the towns by bus.

Joyce, from Milton Street, Saltburn, said: "This is going to be a problem, because I take the X4, and they will run through Loftus less frequently now.

"The shops are going to be very hard hit." Joyce believes Arriva chiefs are stopping the services because of money.

She told the Evening Gazette: "I have a free bus pass like all older people.

"A lot of us rely on the bus as our only form of transport - maybe they are just not making the money so want to stop the service." And at the other end of the Tees Valley, Stockton councillor John Fletcher, Chairman of Stockton-on-Tees Public Transport Forum, said a number of constituents in his

Eaglescliffe ward had voiced their concerns.

He said: "Changes to services and times are not publicised well in advance, so passengers who do not travel daily can be taken by surprise.

"Also, people are worried that there might be no regular evening and Sunday service at all.

This would isolate people who have no car available." The changes come into force on June 1.

Mr Fozzard said: "We have consulted with the local authorities on all the planned changes to ensure that they are aware of the changes."

CAPTION(S):

HIT: Student Andrew Anderson with his friends Jemma Lane and Bryn Suggett, above, and Joyce Thistlethwaite, right Main