A MUM and daughter from Thornbury have criticised a firm for controversial changes to timetables that mean buses don’t run during the peak morning commute.

Jen Gash, whose 17-year-old daughter Jillie has just completed her first year of A-level study at SGS College in Filton, was outraged to learn that the T1/T2 service run by First Bus to replace the 78/79 had changed drastically without any warning.

Rather than leaving Thornbury just after 8am, arriving with 10 minutes to spare before classes begin, the new service requires students to leave the town well before 7.30am to arrive a full 40 minutes early.

Any commuters heading to Cribbs Causeway would face an even earlier arrival, with the next bus not arriving until 9.20am.

“My daughter is reliant on that bus every day,” said Ms Gash.

“The old schedule would leave at the stop near our house and arrive at the campus just in time for the start of lessons.

“But the new alterations will see the bus get to the campus almost an hour early, which just seems like poor organisation.”

Ms Gash was also among many residents complaining to The Gazette that little had been done to advertise the changes.

“I don’t see how First can get away with not serving the whole A38 at peak commuting hours,” said Ms Gash.

“I would have thought it will massively affect the people who work at the Mall or in Filton, at the likes of BAE and Airbus, as well as students.

"Not everyone can afford to have a car and they will be the ones who struggle the most.

"People are going to get to the bus stop on Monday and not know there isn’t a bus.

“First just need to accept they should put an extra bus on to accommodate all their users who are on their way to work.”

A First Bus spokesman said: “In drawing up the new timetable we consulted with Thornbury Town Council, but having been made aware of the issue we are happy to review the timetable and investigate any scope for improvements.

“Providing such improvements can be made without creating other issues, they could possibly be introduced for the next service change in September.”

He added: “The timetable is available from the homepage in the news story about First improving services to Thornbury as a downloadable PDF, as well as from the navigation menu to the route maps section where all timetables are downloadable from one page.”