I was sorry to read of the problem Patrick Kilkelly had when endeavouring to use our service (letters, September 11).

From the details supplied, the depot management has confirmed that the driver originally scheduled to operate this service unfortunately had an accident on his way into work, and so a “relief” driver as mentioned was called in to operate the service as soon as we were aware of the incident.

The time delay was caused by the fact that the relief driver was based at our Cambridge depot and not at Ely where the driver who had the accident was based.

Unfortunately, to compound the matter, the vehicle which the relief driver took out to Ely developed a fault which meant it was not available to operate in service and the driver then had to return to Cambridge.

Clearly this experience is far below the normal service we aim to provide, and I hope you can appreciate that this was a situation which had occurred through matters beyond our control.

Where instances or problems do occur, we aim to provide a solution which will cause the least amount of disruption to our passengers as possible, and I apologise for any delay or distress that was caused to you and fellow passengers.

ZOE PAGET

Operations Director

Stagecoach East

Via e-mail