A BUS company that had to reroute services due to two-hour delays in Poole has said congestion is “very harmful to people’s lives”.

It comes after a combination of roadworks and a broken-down vehicle in Blandford Road, Hamworthy, affected the Morebus 8, 8X and 9 services on Wednesday, August 4.

Richard Wade, Morebus general manager, said: “This situation has demonstrated that congestion is very harmful to people's lives, and further demonstrates that continued reliance on cars for all journeys is not a sustainable solution.

Morebus were made aware earlier in the year that electricity company SSEN would require some road closures in Hamworthy to replace expired high voltage cables, so they recast their route network around the Hamworthy area and introduced temporary timetables.

The company says they allowed additional time in their timetables for the extra mileage to be covered and for some expected heavier traffic.

However, they said: “Clearly what we can't do is timetable journeys to account for very heavy traffic, as this would cause a lot of frustration for those on board on quieter days. Buses would be waiting for some time at every timing point.”

“The traffic has been heavier than anyone had anticipated, and we've worked with BCP Council to supply data from our own vehicles to assist in their reprogramming of traffic signals, while being aware that the road network has a finite capacity.”

The company and its passengers have experienced severe delays in Hamworthy throughout both phases and the first phase also brought Upton to a standstill for a portion of each afternoon while traffic queued to get into Hamworthy.

Morebus have engaged with SSEN and BCP via weekly calls and updated them on their experiences while making suggestions which they say BCP Council has taken on board.

Delays on Wednesday evening were exacerbated by a broken-down vehicle further along Blandford Road near to Yarrells Lane junction.

However, by Friday it is hoped that local traffic leaving Hamworthy will be able to do so via Ashmore Avenue and the bridges into Poole as well as via Upton, so an improved flow of traffic is anticipated.

The Morebus temporary timetables, which were introduced around the information from the plans announced in Spring, will continue to be in place until the last buses on 19 August. The company intends to return to their usual route and timetable structure from 20 August, with full details available on morebus.co.uk and via the morebus app.