CHANGES to a busy bus timetable will affect workers trying to get home to Irvine from Glasgow, according to two rival MSP’s.

Labour’s Margaret McDougall and the SNP’s Margaret Burgess have warned that changes to the X79 timetable by Stagecoach, which goes from Glasgow to Irvine and vice-versa, will cause issues for people who work from 9am to 5pm.

The proposal, which came into place on Monday, would see the current 5.17pm service from Glasgow leaving earlier at 5.05pm, meaning the earlier departure could result in workers that finish at 5pm missing the bus which departs from Buchanan bus station.

MSP Margaret McDougall said: “This is yet another timetabling change that will affect local bus users and adds more weight to Labour’s case for bus regulation which would bring back some form of democratic control over bus service and allow us to shape services so that they meet the needs of communities and users.

“In this case bringing forward the 5.17pm bus will make this service unavailable to local commuters who work a traditional 9am to 5pm working week.

“I have written to Stagecoach asking them to explain the rationale for this change which, on the face of it, doesn’t seem to make commercial sense.” Margaret Burgess, MSP for Cunninghame South, agrees that Stagecoach should reconsider their decision but dismisses the call from Ms McDougall to regulate the bus service.

She said: “This X79 timetable change would certainly make the route difficult or impossible for anyone working 9pm to 5pm.

“Stagecoach should be asked to look again at this change.

“However, any talk of bus regulation would do nothing at all for this timetable change. Somebody would have to find several hundred million pounds and go through a lengthy legal process, and that is not going to happen anytime soon.” A spokeswoman for Stagecoach said: “This decision was taken as a result of customer feedback requesting a more direct journey from Glasgow to Irvine around this time of day.

“Having assessed the potential departure times for this journey, 5.05pm was deemed the most suitable to deliver this service.

“As well as the X79 service, customers have a number of other journey options between Glasgow and Irvine. The X44 service departs at 5.10pm or 6.25pm, the X34 departs at 5.15pm and 5.40pm and there is also the option of taking the regular X76 service to Kilmarnock and changing to a Service 11 to Irvine.

“We are sorry if this impacts some customers. We work hard to try to take the needs of all customers into account and have to base our decisions on what will benefit the majority of our passengers.

“As always, we will keep our network under review to see where further improvements can be made.”