People who have waited hours for buses to turn up have been told to feedback their concerns to a bus operator.

Arriva has pledged to fix bus services in Darlington after residents urged council leaders to "sort out the flipping buses" with services in the town labelled a "broken system".

One Arriva bus service was branded “the work of the devil” as councillors spoke out about difficulties at a council meeting in July.

Darlington’s MP Peter Gibson attended a meeting with Arriva bosses on Thursday alongside the town’s council leader Jonathan Dulston and Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen.

The local Conservative politicians said they have heard stories of essential workers finishing long, late-night shifts to find timetabled buses are not arriving.

Read more: Arriva bus services in Darlington criticised amid a 'broken system'

But the pair said Arriva are committed to working with residents to address their concerns and urged anyone who has experienced difficulty with the services to contact them.

“We are only too well aware of the continued problems with regards to disruption to the timetable, largely as a result of driver recruitment challenges and staff absences,” Mr Gibson said.

The Northern Echo: Cllr Jonathan Dulston. Picture: SARAH CALDECOTTCllr Jonathan Dulston. Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)

Cllr Dulston was promoted to the post of leader only 10 weeks ago but said sorting out the bus issue is one of his top priorities due to the number of complaints he has received from residents.  

He said: “Buses that are advertised to turn up [are] just not coming. I've got one resident that finished an eight-hour shift and was stood at a bus stop for nearly two hours. That’s just frankly not acceptable.”

In a video shared on Facebook, Mr Gibson said he had come away from the meeting encouraged by Arriva’s commitment to its services in Darlington.

Cllr Dulston added: “What I've pressed them on is they've committed to a timetable. And it's important that they follow that timetable. We didn't ask them, they told us what they can commit to and we agreed that is the best course of action.”

The pair urged residents to feedback any issues they have had with Arriva services so they can investigate specific issues.

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“The overall message that we both need to give is that the service needs to be used by people and we understand the challenges that that has caused for people in recent weeks about that reliability and people losing trust in it but they need those people on the buses to make those services commercially viable,” added Mr Gibson.

“So if you can travel by bus, we know it's clean and we know it's green, and particularly in the summer holidays with free child travel being available which we know has been a real boost to people with cost of living challenges, the message is go by bus, if you can.

“We're both here to help we want to see your services improve because it's essential for our community connectivity, but also for our local economy as well.”

An Arriva spokesman said: "We are aware of the recent criticism over bus services in Darlington and we’re committed to working closely with TVCA on the implementation of a Bus Service Improvement Plan, which we believe will lead to positive improvements across the Darlington network for our customers and communities."

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