Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Bus firm urged to think again about timetable changes in Moray

Forres councillor Aaron McLean fears residents will be cut off by the proposed bus timetable changes.
Forres councillor Aaron McLean fears residents will be cut off by the proposed bus timetable changes.

A bus firm has been urged by worried communities to step back from withdrawing “lifeline” routes in the region.

Stagecoach insist the raft of changes proposed for a number of Moray towns and villages is to improve the reliability of connections.

But fears have been raised the new timetables, which are subject to a consultation, will leave residents without essential links.

MSPs Richard Lochhead and Douglas Ross have written an urgent letter to the head of the transport giant urging them to pull out all the stops to retain the number 36 between Forres and Kinloss.

Forres councillor Aaron McLean agreed the withdrawal of the route could be devastating for residents that rely on it.

He said: “As well as being an important link between Kinloss, Findhorn and Forres, the number 36 bus provides a town service within Forres and is a lifeline for many people.

“I know from a number of the people I’ve spoken to that withdrawing this service would cause serious difficulties for folk in town who use the bus to access the doctors surgery, as well as those in Kinloss and Findhorn who rely on the bus for their daily commute.”

In Elgin the 30 from New Elgin to Larch Court will be withdrawn entirely while the 31 to Bilbohall and Pinefield and 32 to Spynie Hospital will be removed and incorporated into other routes.

The 33 from Elgin to Lossiemouth will now be every 20 minutes but will no longer run from Lesmurdie Road to Newmill Road.

Mr Ross added: “I believe that any such consultation which takes place in the coming weeks must take on board all feedback before any decision is made. The feedback I have received to date makes it clear that the 36 service in particular must be retained. There are also issues with some of the reductions within Elgin.”

A public consultation event has been organised by Stagecoach in Elgin’s St Giles Centre on Tuesday from 9am to 5pm.

The firm’s managing director for North Scotland, Mark Whitelocks, said: “We offer a comprehensive network within Aberdeenshire and Moray and our proposals for May 1 come on the back of work we have been doing recently to look at opportunities to improve our reliability in the face of growing congestion, taking into account feedback that we have had on our current services from our customers as well as analysis on the use that our current services have.”