ELDERLY Galashiels residents have hit out at Borders Buses after their local service repeatedly failed to turn up.

George Sommerville and Maureen Blackadder, who live in Glenfield Court, claim the 54 bus, which operates on a circular route around the town, hasn’t appeared outside their sheltered housing complex on many occasions throughout the year.

The pair said they, and others who live in nearby sheltered accommodation, rely on the bus service to travel a mile to get into town.

And they have been forced to shell out for taxis when the buses failed to show up.

Maureen told the Border Telegraph: “Ever since Borders Buses took over the running of the service, there have been many times when the service has not appeared at all [at Glenfield Road West].

“The issues have been going on for months, and you never get the bus going the same route five days in a row.

“The 54 bus service tends to come up to the roundabout at Asda, and then head back down, rather than driving along to the stop at Glenfield Road West.

“What doesn’t help either is that there is no bus stop sign, or any markings on the road to let anyone know there is a bus stop here.”

The pair have written to Borders Buses, who operate the service on behalf of Scottish Borders Council, to voice their frustration at the recurring no-shows.

The company took over the route from First at the start of January.

The bus service operates hourly in Galashiels from Monday to Saturday. But two journeys per day are supposed to divert down Glenfield Road West – at 10.34am and 12.34pm.

Lee Young, operations manager at Borders Buses said: “Service 54 operates to a registered timetable and our bus stop analysis shows customers have been boarding at the stop at Glenfield Road West.

“An investigation into the service did highlight however on a handful of occasions – including last Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, the stop at Glenfield Road West had been missed.

“This was down to new driver error and this issue has since been addressed.

“We would like to apologise to those customers who were inconvenienced by this mistake which should not happen again.”