Earlier this week I was made aware of problems that passengers are having with the Brighton and Hove Buses mobile app.

I contacted Martin Harris, Managing Director at the bus company about the problems being reported to ask him what steps the company is taking to put things right.

He’s replied to explain that logistical issues with the supplier of their old app meant that they made the decision to immediately advance the roll out programme of their new app. Since then the situation has been exacerbated by the old app no longer being available, which the bus company says is outside of its control.

The problems that passengers are facing are far from ideal, but Martin Harris has offered some reassurance about the next steps, and said that by downloading the new app passengers should be able to access the service and resolve the problems they have had. He has offered an apology to all those who have suffered inconvenience and said that:

“We now have around 37,000 customers active on the new app indicative of the rapid take up given the necessities of the situation. The new supplier’s servers are stable and there have been no reports of outages despite the rapid pick up from almost zero.

We are continuing to ask drivers to allow travel if customers say they have valid tickets on the old app although we will need to review this going forwards and we continue to advise customers who want to transfer tickets from the old app to the new app to contact our customer services team who are able to do so for them.

We are encouraging customers to use any tickets they have on the old app as soon as possible and it is more stable now, before moving over to the new app. Customers will have until mid-October to use their old tickets up due to the ending of the relationship with the supplier. In the meantime, we will continue to work to fully resolve the issues this has presented some of our customers, and I hope you are reassured that we are giving our best endeavours to achieve solutions for our bus service users.”

If any of my constituents are experiencing problems, contact details for B&H bus company are: 01273 886200; info@buses.co.uk.

Whilst they are experiencing a high level of enquiries at the moment, I’ve been told that they are bringing in extra resource from other areas of the business to help customers.

In addition to telephone and email, Brighton and Hove Bus Company can be contacted via its Twitter and Facebook channels.

The 1 Stop Travel shop on North Street will also be able to offer assistance if needed.

I’m pleased that the bus company recognises the level of inconvenience the situation has caused, and it is using additional resources to handle enquiries and assist passengers.

Should any of my constituents struggle to get a response from Brighton and Hove Bus Company, or experience any ongoing problems linked to this issue, then you would be very welcome to also contact me directly to let me know. I can be contacted at my constituency office on: 01273 201130; and at: brightonoffice@parliament.uk.