Stagecoach has now responded to pleas that the 7B daytime service would again go through the communities of Portlethen and Newtonhill and onwards to Stonehaven. Currently daytime services terminate at Chapelton before returning to Aberdeen.

After residents had contacted me I has asked the council’s public transportation unit if they could raise the issue with Stagecoach.

Stagecoach Bluebird have confirmed the company is not in a position to make large-scale changes at the moment. That because it is a condition of the grant from the Scottish Government to keep the buses running during the pandemic.

However they company says it is “monitoring feedback from customers and stakeholders so that we are well informed when we get to the point where we can consider network revisions”.

The company goes on to say: “The current service pattern is based on a significant amount of analysis of customer travel patterns and a customer consultation that took place ahead of the original planned change date in April 2020.

“This demonstrated that connections to/from Aberdeen from each of the coastal communities were a higher priority than connections between the communities (particularly heading south). This is why we invested more of our resources on the fast X7 service from Stonehaven to Aberdeen via Chapelton Park & Choose, whilst maintaining the 7/B service for Chapelton village, Newtonhill and Portlethen. Customers can use the 7B through the village to connect at the Park & Choose site onto X7 for journeys towards Stonehaven.”

Of course the X7 isn’t great for some folk, and I had also asked about the cordoned-off seats behind the driver. The coach-style X7s are operated by a sister company, Stagecoach East. They have confirmed that there are “no plans to change the vehicle type on our X7s at this time.

“Prior to covid, these were the only type of vehicles that had the capacity and the comfort required for the potential length of journey.

“As you can imagine, these are quite expensive pieces of kit, so we are not likely to replace them until such a time as they need to be replaced as part of any cascade programme.”

However there is a glimmer of hope about making the lower seats available, but it depends on covid. The Stagecoach East spokesperson promised to “make enquiries about the likelihood of opening the bottom seat, but the health and safety of staff and customers much be paramount, and we’re still not out the woods with this pandemic as of yet.”

We will need to be alert to when the timetables are revisited again and contribute to any consultation.