Stagecoach ends Moray service – bus passengers faced with eight-month wait for replacement

A lifeline bus service will eventually be replaced – but uncertainty remains about what passengers will do for the next eight months until then.

Stagecoach stopped running its service between Findhorn and Forres on Saturday. However the replacement m.connect coastal service can only start operating in April.

Sandy Keith (Elgin North, Labour) felt there was a “one size fits all” approach to bus service funding in Scotland which did not suit Moray.

The council agreed his suggestion that it writes to Cabinet Secretary Fiona Hyslop, outlining the issues involved with running bus services in a rural area.

Derek Ross (Speyside Glenlivet, Independent) asked if the Ministry of Defence had been approached to assist with a service, as the bus route passes the army barracks at Kinloss.

Nicola Moss, the council’s head of environmental and commercial services, replied there had been dialogue but no funding was available at the moment.

Graham Leadbitter (Elgin South, SNP) suggested Stagecoach should be approached to help out.

The outgoing councillor who’s now an MP said it was a “reasonable ask”, given the short notice provided by the bus company for withdrawing the service.

Letters will now be sent to the Ministry of Defence and Stagecoach seeking assistance with a temporary service until April.

Stagecoach axed its route connecting Findhorn and Forres on the grounds that it is not commercially viable.

Meanwhile, it will only run two buses a day between Findhorn and Elgin, instead of an hourly service from 7am and 5.30pm.

The council’s replacement m.connect coastal bus service was originally intended to run from Lossiemouth to Findhorn, via Hopeman, Burghead, Roseisle and Kinloss.

However the new plan is to extend the route and make Forres its final destination.