I RECENTLY had one of those 185 days. People who have the misfortune to use the 185 bus route will know exactly what I mean.

On Saturday, December 9, the 12.05 Tavistock to Bere Alston bus failed to arrive and neither did the 13.05 bother to make an appearance. It is not just that the bus doesn't come at all but frequently when it does come, it is late.

On this particular day I rang Western National's Customer Services to be told there was no information about what was going on at the Tavistock depot from where the buses for this route came from.

I was advised to walk from the bus station to the Tavistock depot in Crowndale Road with my three-year-old in the cold and the rain to find the inspector on duty at the depot to find out when a bus would come. I found this suggestion outrageous and was eventually given a telephone number for the depot which turned out to be a fax number. Someone did manage to telephone the Tavistock depot but the inspector was as phantom as the buses.

It really is unacceptable for the bus service to operate in this way. It is as if Western National has quite simply contempt for its passengers.

I think we deserve better. Cannot something be done to improve the service?

Bel Greenwood

Moorcroft

Brentor