A TENBURY Wells worker, who caught the same bus to work for more than a decade, has been left watching it trundle past empty after the service was discontinued.

Tom Padbury caught the 731 bus from his home in Ludlow to work at Tenbury High School and back again for 12 years. He was frustrated to find the service finished on April 1.

To make matters worse, he discovered the same buses will continue to run as a 'phantom' service from Ludlow to Tenbury because they are not allowed to collect passengers along the way.

He said: "I understand that these two buses will now be running empty to and from Tenbury and are not allowed to take any passengers. This is because the 8am service from Tenbury and the 3.55pm service from Ludlow College both come from Whittle's Ludlow garage.

"I have seen no posters and I only found out about it by word of mouth from other users."

Now Mr Padbury catches the 7.55am bus service in the morning but has to get a lift home from a work colleague. He says it is extremely inconvenient, especially when there is an empty bus returning to Ludlow.

James Willocks, principal transport officer at Shropshire County Council, said the two services in question were offered commercially by Whittle Coach and Bus Ltd.

"They have decided to withdraw those so that is their own commercial decision," he explained. "But we have had someone go to see that route and see how many people use it and we are only talking a very small amount of people. We are deciding what funds we have available. It is still being considered."

Managing director of Whittle Coach and Bus Ltd, David Shurden, said: "The journeys in question are commercial and we receive no financial support for operating them.

"Due to losing other journeys on this route during the tendering process, we feel we can no longer continue due to the low number of passengers using the service.

"A link does still exist on our service number 755 which leaves Ludlow at 7.55am, arriving Burford at 8.15am and returning from Burford at 4.04pm, arriving Ludlow at 4.24pm."

Mr Padbury added: "If the bus is to continue running to and from Tenbury empty, surely it must make sense for it to continue to take passengers that are willing to pay for this transport? This makes commonsense."