A PENSIONER has been left struggling to keep up his volunteer work and visit his hometown after Stagecoach axed the X76 bus.

Sam Purdie, 82, relied heavily on the direct service from Cumnock to Glasgow after moving out of Glenbuck.

He wanted to keep ties with the community and carry out mining volunteer projects but struggles now that he needs to catch the connections which are often unreliable.

The pensioner is now blasting the bus company branding their claims of no demand for the x76 as sheer ‘nonsense’.

He said: “I regularly used bus from Cumnock to Glasgow and now the connections from Cumnock to Kilmarnock to Glasgow.

“The direct service used to be so full all the time I don’t understand why they would ever have cut it off.

“I live in Perth now so the bus is how I get to visit my local roots and carry out mining volunteer projects in Glenbuck which I do once a week.

“Because of the connections it means an extra change at Kilmarnock which is really unpleasant. You can be stuck there for a while and it’s very cold and often doesn’t have anywhere to sit.

“I can definitely see why people would be out off getting the connection, it puts me off travelling to Glasgow.

“It is a lot more of a chore than it used to be and it is total nonsense saying there was never a demand for the service.

“I’m 82 and don’t drive and it really helped me, I feel so let down By Stagecoach.

A spokesperson for Stagecoach West Scotland advised:“In September 2018, passengers were given the opportunity to provide feedback regarding the changes to the X76 via a questionnaire, this was conducted over a period of two weeks to gather a fair representation of peak travel habits and off peak travel habits.

“Customers on board were asked if they travelled on the 76 or 50 service to Kilmarnock to then travel on board the X76 to Glasgow, 86 per cent of customers on board who completed the survey stated that they did not use either the 76 or 50 service.

“In addition, the new X76 service received a weighted average of 4.23 out of 5 when asked to rate the service.

“This combined with the analysis carried out over a per iod of 18 months pr ior to the service changes confirms that a change of bus at Kilmarnock Bus Station remains the most appropriate service.”