ANGRY passengers are lambasting a bus company about its "disgraceful" service between Leeds and Otley.

Commuters say they are regularly left waiting for the 33A and last week passengers waited for more than an hour only to find the bus was full when it eventually reached them.

Now Leeds North West MP Alex Sobel is asking for a meeting with First Bus to discuss ways its service can be improved.

He has stepped in on behalf of Otley woman Margaret Turner who has written to the bus company demanding improvements and asking for a refund for the taxi she was forced to take after being left stranded.

The company has now apologised to her and has said timetables have been revised to improve reliability.

In her letter Mrs Turner, who is severely partially sighted, said: "We catch (or try to) the 33A at the bus stop opposite the Kineholme Garage to Yeadon Morrisons, every Friday afternoon at the supposed time of 2.35pm. I meet my son at Morrisons who is a vulnerable adult and gets very anxious when we don’t turn up at a reasonable time."

"This bus is rarely on time but yesterday (Friday, October 20) people, including ourselves, were waiting for over an hour before any bus appeared. To add insult to injury one came along and it said private so went straight past. Then another came along some time later that was so packed with people that we couldn’t get on."

Mrs Turner called for the introduction of electronic timetables.

Mr Sobel said:"I have had many communications with constituents around the reliability of First Bus. Margaret Turner’s case is particularly troubling as, like many, she depends on buses to get around and this incident has caused her and members of her family great anxiety. I have written to First Bus to ask that they firstly reimburse Margaret Turner for her taxi fare and that they look at the reliability of the 33a Service. I agree that installing electronic timetables would help to inform passengers of unforeseen delays and cancellations. I have asked to meet First Bus personally so that we can discuss precisely issues like this, but also other ways in which they could improve their service.'"

Martin Hirst, Commercial Director at First West Yorkshire apologised to Mrs Turner and stressed the business listened to feedback and was constantly working hard to improve the reliability of its services.

"We have recognised that some of our popular services, including the 33A, have been suffering from traffic congestion at peak times and we have therefore, from last week (22nd October), introduced revised timetables on many city services to improve the reliability for customers across West Yorkshire," he said. "We therefore expect the reliability of the 33A to improve, but we welcome customer feedback if there are any future concerns."

He said real-time service updates were available via the First Bus Travel Information app, and he also urged passenger to use cheaper mTickets, rather than cash, to speed up boarding times.