Last bus cancelled and no help

[joncombe]

I just wondered if there is any obligation for bus companies to help you if the last bus of the day didn't run. Yesterday I was waiting for the last bus of the day but the bus but it didn't arrive. I could see from the map on the bustimes.org website the bus appeared to have ended the route about half way along it and was now heading way off the route.

As a result I used Uber to get home (which cost me a little under £25). I contacted the bus company concerned who stated that there were road works along the road the bus uses and closed the road (and the road works started early) and so the bus had to divert and so didn't serve the stop I was waiting at. However the part of the road in question that was closed was about 8 miles away from where I was waiting for the bus! There were no roadworks near where I was waiting and there was nothing on their website or social media about this bus not running and the telephone line was closed at that time of day.

They have declined my request to refund my expenses (I did provide the reciept) stating that it was "outside of their control". I am pretty annoyed about this as I don't think it's accpetable to abandon passengers with no advance warning, no alternative transport and information (the stop in question had no information display) and just say well it was outside of our control. As I said the road closure was 8 miles away! I have sent them another email in the hope they will reconsider but I am not optimisitc. Is there anything else I can do here or do I just have to write the cost off? As I said if the road works were close by or there was no alternative road they could use I could understand it, but there wasn't. The bus company was Compass Bus, by the way.

 

[D6130]

I'm not sure how many other companies have this policy, but my local company - TLC Travel, based in Bradford - will reimburse taxi fares if the last bus on a particular route is cancelled. You just have to obtain a receipt from the taxi driver and present it to any TLC bus driver in the local area on the following day - whether travelling or not - and they will refund it in cash. Not sure whether or not the driver would have enough cash to refund a large taxi fare. In my case it was only £5.

 

[Forty29]

Yes they should have made efforts to cover the route where possible especially as the last journey. Was it a rural or town location you were in not that should have made any difference, but leaving people stranded is a no no. In this day and age we are all vulnerable people you never know who you would come across whether in town or country.
I hope they have a change of heart and reimburse your Uber.

 

[Deerfold]

I'm not sure how many other companies have this policy, but my local company - TLC Travel, based in Bradford - will reimburse taxi fares if the last bus on a particular route is cancelled. You just have to obtain a receipt from the taxi driver and present it to any TLC bus driver in the local area on the following day - whether travelling or not - and they will refund it in cash. Not sure whether or not the driver would have enough cash to refund a large taxi fare. In my case it was only £5.

First, Arriva and Transdev in West Yorkshire have also agreed to cover taxi fares where the last bus on a route fails to run - you're expected to wait until it's 20 minutes after the due time and claim online (or possibly by post) https://www.wymetro.com/contact-us/...i-refunds-for-bus-journeys-in-west-yorkshire/

Abandoning passengers wanting the last bus and not caring that they've done so seems to be the behaviour most likely to get people looking for alternatives.

 

[Man of Kent]

Compass has a pretty comprehensive section on their website describing temporary changes

Service Updates – Compass Travel

compass-travel.co.uk

Below is the entry for the 32, which is currently able to serve some points in the evening.
Unless the Highway Authority that permits the closures is so minded to fund a shuttle, in most cases - including where journeys are tendered - the cost of any additional resource is likely to be regarded as too expensive for very limited benefit.

⛔ Disruption – A25, Westcott – Overnight Road Closure​

From 8 July 2026 to 11 July 2026


⏳From 8th July until 11th July (inc) between 20.00 and 06.00 ⚠️ Service 32, the 21.05 trip from Guildford will terminate at Gomshall Railways Station. ? ?Unfortunately, the bus cannot serve between Abinger Hammer and Strood Green until the road reopens. ?We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this matter.


Impacted Routes:


32

⛔ Disruption – Kiln Lane, Brockham – Road Closure​

From 10 July 2026 to 17 July 2026


⏳Until 17th July ⚠️ Service 32 will divert by A25 and Reigate Road in both directions ? ?Unfortunately, the bus cannot serve Betchworth Post Office ?We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this matter outside of our control.


Impacted Routes:


32

​

 

[PeterC]

The only time that I have kown a shuttle het funded in Bucks was when HS2 works temporarily turned the road past Amersham Hospital into a cul-de-sac. I suspect that the funding was from HS2 rather than the LA.

The information flow from the utility company to the bus driver can be pretty flaky. I have seen a number of instances locally where buses have had to make totally unplanned diversions. As the drivers are based a dozen miles away they usually end up missing a few more stops than strictly necessary as they lack local knowledge.

 

[markymark2000]

What I'd perhaps suggest trying to escalating it to BusUsersUK. They aren't the best in my experience and their case handlers ignore many cases and if the operator doesn't answer they just give up and don't care, but on rare occasions, they can produce something worthwhile and get operators to provide compensation or more/better information.

 

[Surreytraveller]

Compass has a pretty comprehensive section on their website describing temporary changes

Service Updates – Compass Travel

compass-travel.co.uk

Below is the entry for the 32, which is currently able to serve some points in the evening.
Unless the Highway Authority that permits the closures is so minded to fund a shuttle, in most cases - including where journeys are tendered - the cost of any additional resource is likely to be regarded as too expensive for very limited benefit.

It's one thing when alterations are known about in advance, but on the day, live alterations, then that's a different matter. Even those bus companies with apps struggle to provide information, let alone alternative transport

 

[James H]

The DfT is currently consulting on changes to BODS (Bus Services Open Data) to include cancellations and diversions:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consu...25-improving-information-about-local-services

The aim is to create a single, open source of information about a wider range of local bus services. The new system should make it simpler for operators and users to input data and easier for the public to access bus service information.

We also intend to gather and release new data from bus operators about their services.

 

[Stan Drews]

The problem isn’t so much the planned road closures etc, it’s examples like this one when the plan doesn’t work. We regularly have to deal with unplanned closures we know nothing about as well as scenarios where roads are closed before their scheduled time or continue beyond their expected opening time. Therefore, you can do all the expert planning and have everyone notified and then it all goes t*ts up when the agreed plan doesn’t happen!
In this particular situation perhaps you should try claiming against the entity that closed the road?

 

[mb88]

The fact the roadworks were 8 miles away is immaterial really as there could be no suitable diversion routes for the bus to take. I’d say if it was planned roadworks which started earlier than advertised then the bus company has reasonable grounds to say it was outwith their control.

 

[dgl]

Round my way if certain sections of either the Weymouth to Bridport coast road or the A35 Dorchester to Bridport road are closed then they have to miss out a good few stops, potentially leaving at least three villages without a service. Not great but there aren't any other options really.

What does need to happen is to get the real time information screens to show the correct information during diversions, wasn't helpful in Dorchester to see a screen still counting down normally when none of the bus stops in Dorchester were actually being served, having to get on at the Poundbury stop and diverting round the bypass.

 

[Canary73]

Monday's last First Essex C9 didn't run and in response to my complaint it was revealed this was due to staff sickness. It was a standard cut and paste response, with no offer of compensation. The display is basically real time and services get removed once the time a bus was due passes. Its not real time. Bus Times showed no sign of it. Its high time their was better regulation and more punitive sanctions for poor bus services. The bus company, bus users UK, Traffic Commissioners between them dont have robust complaints handling processes or the ability to ensure that passengers get satisfactory outcomes when they can evidence legitimate complaints. First, has closed travel centres and fail to provide assistance at times when passengers need help.

 

[Cheers Drive]

Normally if it’s a council funded service you can get a taxi (if you have the money to) and get a receipt and they should honour it I would often inform passengers of this when their service hadn’t turned up.
I suppose this is council specific and maybe not a thing anymore these days ?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Monday's last First Essex C9 didn't run and in response to my complaint it was revealed this was due to staff sickness. It was a standard cut and paste response, with no offer of compensation. The display is basically real time and services get removed once the time a bus was due passes. Its not real time. Bus Times showed no sign of it. Its high time their was better regulation and more punitive sanctions for poor bus services. The bus company, bus users UK, Traffic Commissioners between them dont have robust complaints handling processes or the ability to ensure that passengers get satisfactory outcomes when they can evidence legitimate complaints. First, has closed travel centres and fail to provide assistance at times when passengers need help.

If you have just received a copy and paste response, then you can go to BusUsers and see where that goes.

Looking at the timetable, the last bus is 22:16 so not certain you'd ever have been able to ring an operator at that time, travel office or not.

 

[RT4038]

Monday's last First Essex C9 didn't run and in response to my complaint it was revealed this was due to staff sickness. It was a standard cut and paste response, with no offer of compensation. The display is basically real time and services get removed once the time a bus was due passes. Its not real time. Bus Times showed no sign of it. Its high time their was better regulation and more punitive sanctions for poor bus services. The bus company, bus users UK, Traffic Commissioners between them dont have robust complaints handling processes or the ability to ensure that passengers get satisfactory outcomes when they can evidence legitimate complaints. First, has closed travel centres and fail to provide assistance at times when passengers need help.

Did you specifically ask them for re-imbursement of a receipted taxi fare, or some other expense? There is no concept of 'compensation' in the bus industry, but you can generally get such a re-imbursement for a last bus type of failure.

The other measures you suggest are simply unaffordable - the bus industry does not have virtually unlimited recourse to taxpayers funds. Punitive sanctions will merely result in fewer bus services I suspect. Bus companies often don't have control staff on duty in the evening, and anyway have no duty to provide assistance in the case of service failure. Maybe that is not right, but such facility will need to be funded somehow.

Normally if it’s a council funded service you can get a taxi (if you have the money to) and get a receipt and they should honour it I would often inform passengers of this when their service hadn’t turned up.
I suppose this is council specific and maybe not a thing anymore these days ?

Certainly in the County of my residence this applies to tendered services, within reason of course. This will depend of the Tender t & c s

 

[riceuten]

What's morally correct and what's legal are at odds here. If the service had been contracted, and not run, then the company would I presume have been fined and/or had the money that was due to them for running the service deducted. Or both. But a commercial service, on one occasion ? I doubt any authority would take any action and you would not receive any money the company had to fork over to the county or unitary.

One of the issues - not just with buses - is that there are few consequences for failure to deliver a service. Indeed, I remember a TOC where the company had failed to operate a staggering number of services, but received his bonus because he had reduced headcount at the company (Head/hands)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Aug 2026 ==

Punitive sanctions will merely result in fewer bus services I suspect.

If a public authority ran the service, perhaps less so.

Bus companies often don't have control staff on duty in the evening, and anyway have no duty to provide assistance in the case of service failure. Maybe that is not right, but such facility will need to be funded somehow.

Surely people can be "on call" ? If you are too small to afford this, you shouldn't be operating a service

 

[markymark2000]

If the service had been contracted, and not run, then the company would I presume have been fined and/or had the money that was due to them for running the service deducted.

This largely depends on the operator being open and honest about the cancellation. If not, then it will rely on someone informing the local authority (whether direct complaint, or via councillors etc) and the LA then probing for information.
Even where local authorities are aware though of these largescale issues, many do not 'fine', just merely deduct the money that would be paid on the mileage that was lost. Fining operators isn't as common as it could/should be. Even where authorities do have fine mechanisms built into their tenders such as Merseytravel, it's rarely enforced as if it was, some operators would have dropped routes years ago with the amount of losses they'd be racking up.

 

[Mark L]

Did you specifically ask them for re-imbursement of a receipted taxi fare, or some other expense? There is no concept of 'compensation' in the bus industry, but you can generally get such a re-imbursement for a last bus type of failure.

The other measures you suggest are simply unaffordable - the bus industry does not have virtually unlimited recourse to taxpayers funds. Punitive sanctions will merely result in fewer bus services I suspect. Bus companies often don't have control staff on duty in the evening, and anyway have no duty to provide assistance in the case of service failure. Maybe that is not right, but such facility will need to be funded somehow.



Certainly in the County of my residence this applies to tendered services, within reason of course. This will depend of the Tender t & c s

It does, of course, assume that the average passenger knows that his or her bus service is contracted by the local council. I doubt most do!

 

[RT4038]

It does, of course, assume that the average passenger knows that his or her bus service is contracted by the local council. I doubt most do!

Quite. Much of the public think that Local Authorities control the bus services; it is a difficult PR exercise to start differentiating which trips/services this re-imbursement applies to and which not. With a further complication that, in the county of my residence, this only applies to incidents where the bus does not operate which are within the tenderer's control. An emergency road closure meaning part of the route could not be covered, or unrest on the bus or a road traffic accident etc would not fall under this. Of course, many bus operators may well consider reasonable claims in these circumstances too, but the automated far away customer service centres are not set up to recognise these kind of claims and some persistence is often needed. There is also the, oft undefined, issue of how long is a passenger expected to wait for a possibly late running bus before making (potentially expensive) alternative arrangements? So - no guarantee of anything, so best not shout about the possibility and have people disappointed.

If a public authority ran the service, perhaps less so.

Surely people can be "on call" ? If you are too small to afford this, you shouldn't be operating a service

Most of the country is not set up with a Public Authority running the service. Sure, they may be tendering many of the services, but more onerous conditions re provision of alternatives when services fail etc will cost the bus company more money, which will result in higher tender prices, which (in the absence of a higher funding budget) will result in fewer services being tendered. If there was some kind of legislation mandating this, the number of commercial bus services would also reduce, with the inevitable knock on through the supported sector.

The average bus company (certainly outside of the big cities) has been hollowed out of Management, Admin and supervisory staff, spare drivers and buses, spare time in schedules etc, and is unable to cope very well with disruption. It is all very well saying that these companies 'shouldn't be operating a service', but if not them, who else can afford, in the current circumstances, to do any better?

I am not suggesting for one moment that this is a satisfactory situation; merely pointing out the state of play with the current legislative and funding model.

 

[The exile]

The fact the roadworks were 8 miles away is immaterial really as there could be no suitable diversion routes for the bus to take. I’d say if it was planned roadworks which started earlier than advertised then the bus company has reasonable grounds to say it was outwith their control.

The point is that as far as the passenger is concerned, that should be irrelevant. I know this is utopian but, whether plane, train, bus or ordered taxi, if the operator fails to provide a timetable / agreed service, they should be “on the hook” for the replacement & compensation. It should then be up to them to make any onward claim.

 

[duncombec]

This is a tough one: in an ideal world, of course every timetables bus would run at every time, and there would be penalties or compensation of some sort if it didn't... but we also know that is near impossible to achieve. I have had the same experience: the last bus here is 23:15, and I fondly remember walking 45 minutes home, uphill, in -1 temperatures one January when it didn't show. As recently as last weekend I had a bus no-show on an infrequent rural route, despite the company telling me it was "just a little late" and would be there "in about 10 minutes." [It wasn't; it turned short to get back on time despite them knowing I was waiting].

It's also not a bus company thing. Another recent experience saw me needing to phone an Urgent Treatment Centre. Although the UTC is open 8-8, 7 days a week, the phone number is staffed by the attached GP surgery, which is firmly 9-5 Mon-Fri. So call all you like over the weekend, they won't answer, despite there being ample staff in the building, including two on the reception desk you're not allowed to use because you have to self-check-in.

I can't speak for First Essex, but I do know at my (other national company) local depot that after 'usual hours', and certainly after the daytime services have 'run in' about 7pm, there is only really one inspector on duty. Yes, there are plenty of shunters, fuellers and engineers, but they have their own tasks to do, and probably wouldn't be able to help anyway. The duty inspector is largely tasked with completing paperwork from the day, ensuring vehicles and drivers are back where they should be, and preparing for the following day, as well as any associated admin tasks. The chances of there being a driver at short notice is zero, given any attempt to fill the duty would have been done earlier in the day. They can't drive it themselves, even if they wanted to, because who then does the office work?

The majority of evening services are probably fairly marginal: whilst they may take fares (especially in the fare-cap world), I estimate the majority of those services will be taking home people who travelled outwards earlier in the day, with little traffic towards the town centre, and few "new" customers (who, e.g. got a lift inwards). Insisting on taxi compensation (or similar) may well make those services even more marginal, and thus 'at risk'. Sometimes, we have to be careful what we wish for.

As for public/private: it doesn't matter who runs them, you can't magic up staff, or money. The most recent public-provided-transport-is-better evangelist tried telling me that Brighton & Hove haven't bought new buses for years and it would be better publicly owned... he changed the subject when I told him about this year's delivery, and last year's, and the year before's...

 

[harz99]

Round my way if certain sections of either the Weymouth to Bridport coast road or the A35 Dorchester to Bridport road are closed then they have to miss out a good few stops, potentially leaving at least three villages without a service. Not great but there aren't any other options really.

What does need to happen is to get the real time information screens to show the correct information during diversions, wasn't helpful in Dorchester to see a screen still counting down normally when none of the bus stops in Dorchester were actually being served, having to get on at the Poundbury stop and diverting round the bypass.

Unfortunately, often what many people think are Real Time Information screens are anything but, all they are is an electronic version of the scheduled timetable, which quite frankly is a waste of money.

 

[mayneway]

This is one of the beauty’s of the franchise model in Manchester, in that priority must be given to operate and run late night and early morning, including first and last buses, on time.
I also remember before the Bee Network, a tendered service we ran couldn’t operate the last journey of the night as a driver had gone home sick, so TFGM asked another operator, who ran the daytime commercial service to run the trip.


A lot of comments about the operator paying the taxi fare, and I’m sure had the journey dropped and not run they would have covered the cost, but as far as they are concerned it ran, subject to a diversion due to road works. No doubt this diversion was mentioned on their website and social media accounts.
The issue is these roadworks, especially at night are unplanned with little or no notice. I was flagged down only last week by a traffic management contractor who informed me the road i was on was about to close due to a huge under ground water leak. I rang my depot who had no idea, the result was a major emergency diversion which cut most of a town off for two days with no bus service.

 

[dgl]

Unfortunately, often what many people think are Real Time Information screens are anything but, all they are is an electronic version of the scheduled timetable, which quite frankly is a waste of money.

Ours can both just show the timetable but also be linked to the tracking information hence if it's waiting x mins you expect it to be coming. Can get confused if something goes wrong, like a breakdown, and show incorrect info.

 

[RT4038]

This is one of the beauty’s of the franchise model in Manchester, in that priority must be given to operate and run late night and early morning, including first and last buses, on time.
I also remember before the Bee Network, a tendered service we ran couldn’t operate the last journey of the night as a driver had gone home sick, so TFGM asked another operator, who ran the daytime commercial service to run the trip.

I would suggest that, outside of the major cities, every bus on the road at night will contain a last bus to somewhere, if not last buses on multiple routes. These places will also likely only have one operator, and when and if they franchise, the franchising authority will no more likely have control staff on duty at night any more than the bus companies will. Unless there is some major new source of funding of course......

 

[riceuten]

This largely depends on the operator being open and honest about the cancellation. If not, then it will rely on someone informing the local authority (whether direct complaint, or via councillors etc) and the LA then probing for information.

Years ago, a friend of mine went for a job with a county council where the main function was to audit those undertaking contract work for them and suss out whether they were claiming for mileage they didn't run. This was often intelligence-led, and based on the fact that records for buses run are not that easy to fake, and people tend not to maliciously complain about a company failing to run a bus. At least one operator I know of lost the contract with this county for regularly not running a contracted service and not reporting it.

Even where local authorities are aware though of these largescale issues, many do not 'fine', just merely deduct the money that would be paid on the mileage that was lost. Fining operators isn't as common as it could/should be. Even where authorities do have fine mechanisms built into their tenders such as Merseytravel, it's rarely enforced as if it was, some operators would have dropped routes years ago with the amount of losses they'd be racking up.

Stagecoach were notorious for that in some areas. You would have thought they would have sought to amend the timetable if operating the service at the specified frequency proved challenging.

I can't remember the operator who stopped running an evening service on a route, because the "fines" for not doing so were less than the farebox income received

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Aug 2026 ==

I would suggest that, outside of the major cities, every bus on the road at night will contain a last bus to somewhere, if not last buses on multiple routes. These places will also likely only have one operator, and when and if they franchise, the franchising authority will no more likely have control staff on duty at night any more than the bus companies will. Unless there is some major new source of funding of course......

No, I don't think the logic flows. The depot should have a spare buses at the end of the day, and there should be a relief driver on duty. If firms don't have this, they shouldn't be running this kind of contract

 

[RT4038]

Years ago, a friend of mine went for a job with a county council where the main function was to audit those undertaking contract work for them and suss out whether they were claiming for mileage they didn't run. This was often intelligence-led, and based on the fact that records for buses run are not that easy to fake, and people tend not to maliciously complain about a company failing to run a bus. At least one operator I know of lost the contract with this county for regularly not running a contracted service and not reporting it.

This is changing now, with the development of programs (of varying accuracy) to compare BODS tracking data with Schedules. I am sure this will be honed as experience is gained.

Stagecoach were notorious for that in some areas. You would have thought they would have sought to amend the timetable if operating the service at the specified frequency proved challenging.

I can't remember the operator who stopped running an evening service on a route, because the "fines" for not doing so were less than the farebox income received

It is really up to the tendering authority to have robust terms and conditions, and effective monitoring, to ensure that Operators (within reason) operate the services that are being paid for. In your example, the penalties obviously were not enough....

No, I don't think the logic flows. The depot should have a spare buses at the end of the day, and there should be a relief driver on duty. If firms don't have this, they shouldn't be running this kind of contract

I am not sure how the logic doesn't follow? 'every bus on the road at night' does not include any spare buses in the Depot. They are not 'on the road'. There will not be many provincial bus depots (none of the five in my County of residence) that do not have spare buses available at night. Two have no evening buses running at all, and the other three only a handful of buses each. None of them have any supervisory staff at night ( these working 05h00-13h00 and 12h30-20h30 or so), and none with any relief driver available. The only other staff will be a couple of shunter/cleaners, without PCV licences./ If a vehicle becomes immobile it will be brought in by a Recovery company. If that happens quick enough, the driver will take out another bus to complete the portion of duty. Having a relief driver available (who will do little work usually, and their mere existence may well tempt a colleague to book off sick) will cause the tender price for the evening services to go up (not that there is a suitable mechanism to do this over multiple separate contracts), so one of the bus workings would have to fall by the wayside to pay for it. When you've only got 4 buses out on the road to start with, that is a substantial cut and somebody is going to lose their evening service(s) every night, rather than the occasional failure.
I know it is not a satisfactory situation, but there is no money in the bus industry and it is not carrying the substantial loads of evening passengers to Cinemas, Bingo, Clubs, Pubs etc that it used to 70+ years ago (mostly because all of those things can be done at home and/or online or by using private transport more conveniently).

 

[MartinC]

I know it is not a satisfactory situation, but there is no money in the bus industry and it is not carrying the substantial loads of evening passengers to Cinemas, Bingo, Clubs, Pubs etc that it used to 70+ years ago (mostly because all of those things can be done at home and/or online or by using private transport more conveniently).

Memories of the 1950's in North Wales where the last bus was shown in the timetable as "10mins after the cinema closes"

 

[duncombec]

Having a relief driver available (who will do little work usually, and their mere existence may well tempt a colleague to book off sick) will cause the tender price for the evening services to go up (not that there is a suitable mechanism to do this over multiple separate contracts), so one of the bus workings would have to fall by the wayside to pay for it. When you've only got 4 buses out on the road to start with, that is a substantial cut and somebody is going to lose their evening service(s) every night, rather than the occasional failure.

And even if in some utopian world you did have a relief driver available, what happens if something happens and you find yourself two drivers short? I think many of us have come across "that person" at some point in our lives who does use knowing someone is available to cover as a lever to avoid doing the job they don't want to do themselves, either through absenting themselves, or what the internet calls "weaponized incompetence".

As I raised in my earlier comments, we should not think this is limited to the bus industry: how many other industries can be short-staffed at a particular moment who also don't roster a "relief" person just in case someone who is actually meant to be there doesn't show, for whatever reason?

It is undoubtedly annoying (at the very least) if the last bus doesn't show, especially in rural areas where alternative transport may be significantly harder to come by, and there are perhaps some operators who show the appearance of giving up a little easily... but suggesting punitive fines, removing contracts and relief drivers appear to show something of a misunderstanding as to what is possible, from both contractor and contractee perspectives.
If you make the environment hostile enough that you have zero bidders for an evening service (or to the point a commercial service is withdrawn), then you're arguably worse off than you would have been accepting the occasional occurrence is 'one of life's annoyances'.