CITY bus services came to a halt last night after a bus became grounded on a traffic island outside Ely railway station.

Specialist recovery teams were called in but it took almost four hours to free the Norfolk Green AbsolutEly bus from the island, on the station’s forecourt.

Richard Pengelly, of Norfolk Green, said today: “I would like to apologise to all passengers who were affected. Commuters had stopped using their cars in favour of the bus and we let them down.”

The incident happened at about 5pm, when a bus driver tried to squeeze past some parked cars at the station entrance, said Mr Pengelly.

He said: “We have been in communication with Anglia Railways and National Car Parks with the hope of getting some hatching put down in the area. Our drivers are constantly forced to mount the kerb.

“On this occasion, our driver wrongly tried to squeeze past cars to keep the service running, when he should have waited for a car to move away. The bus was grounded on the kerb, it has only 6in of clearance.

“It took three-and-a-half hours to move the bus. We just couldn’t budge it.”

Mr Pengelly said Norfolk Green has launched in investigation and has instructed drivers to wait for cars to move before pulling away in future.

He also said: “We have been running this service since April and it has been incredibly successful. But we now have to decide where to abandon the service or block the traffic by waiting for cars to move.

“I don’t want a repeat of this situation, it was embarrassing and we let our customers down. We have built up the service and this is going to set it back.”

A spokesman from Greater Anglia, which manages the station, said: “We’re looking at ways of improving the traffic flow and access to Ely station forecourt in the short term and we have a positive dialogue with the other transport providers.”