STRANDED Stratton residents are pleading with a Swindon bus company to keep the service that takes them to the hospital and shopping.

Thamesdown Transport will terminate the number 20 service from May 31, with the nearest existing routes on the firm’s roster running in Penhill and Greenbridge.

Passengers were informed of the decision last Tuesday, allowing them less than six weeks to fight for the future of the route and the decision has rocked dependent, elderly customers.

The company says the decision has been made due to falling passenger numbers on the route.

If the decision is upheld, Ermin Street will have no buses at all between The Kingsdown and The Crown Inn pubs.

Pensioners Elizabeth Smart and Enid Levy will have their daily walk to the bus stop hugely increased under current plans and they will have no direct access to Great Western Hospital.

“It’ll be very difficult because the nearest bus stop is past The Crown,” said Elizabeth, 76.

“It’s bad enough in the summer, but in the winter, when you have got shopping, you’ve got to walk along there and walk back too.

“We don’t want to be cut off from everything. You can’t live out here without a bus.”

The pair, who both live in Wildern Square, yards from a number 20 stop, face a half-mile trek to meet Stagecoach’s number seven service.

It is a direct route to the town centre, where they would need to spend more time changing services, in order to reach GWH.

Elizabeth, a retired warehouse operative, and Enid, 84, a retired nurse, are both anxious about the expected exertion, especially when faced with the temperature extremes of summer and winter.

“I can’t get to the hospital from there.

“I can’t get to Gorse Hill to do my shopping,” said Enid, 84.

“I’m going to have to walk to get the number seven, which is obviously going to be hard in the winter.

“It’s hard enough as it is on Saturdays and bank holidays with no buses.”

Thamesdown Transport has apologised for any inconvenience caused and put the decision down to low passenger numbers as well as the results of a customer survey, but Elizabeth remains unconvinced.

Elizabeth said: “Maybe the route isn’t commercially viable, but we have suggested they get a run-around, a minibus or something because otherwise we are just stuck,” she said.

“Why can’t you put a minibus on? It’s like every bus route. Sometimes they’re empty, sometimes they’re full.”

A Thamesdown Transport spokesman said: “Service 20 is to be removed from May 31 due to low passenger numbers, which mean it is no longer commercially viable for us.

“Before making the decision to withdraw the route, we conducted a survey of passenger numbers and found less than one-third of all journeys were made to the hospital.

“Most of these customers will still be able to travel to the GWH by using alternative services to the town centre and changing to service 16/16X.

“Unfortunately, for the nine per cent of passengers who currently use service 20 from Ermin Street there will be no alternative service. Withdrawing service 20 has not been a decision we have taken lightly and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.”