Free bus vouchers offered as biodiesel mix-up causes travel chaos

Dec 4, 2023

A bus navigates the snowy Knaresborough streets.

Bus passengers across the Harrogate district were made late for school and work today, after dozens of cancellations were caused when vehicles were filled up with the wrong type of fuel.

At least 56 services were scrapped on six routes, leading to one of the worst days for disruption so far this year for The Harrogate Bus Company.

The company’s website stated there were numerous cancellations of the 36 service between Ripon and Leeds via Harrogate, the 1, 1A, 1B and 1D between Harrogate and Knaresborough, and the 3 from Harrogate to Jennyfield.

This morning, it also tweeted that the S2 school bus from Bilton to Rossett School was being delayed by up to 30 minutes due to what the Harrogate Bus Company said was “a vehicle-related issue”.

After receiving reports from readers, the Stray Ferret asked The Harrogate Bus Company about the disruptions. Operations director Vitto Pizzuti said:

“We apologise to our customers for the issues on some of our routes today. Since summer 2023, all our diesel buses have been running on a blend of biodiesel, leading to reduced emissions: the proportion of biodiesel in the fuel blend is normally higher in summer, and lower in winter.

“Unfortunately, it seems our fuel supplier delivered a higher bio blend to our depot last week, which meant that some of our buses were unable to run in the low temperatures over the weekend and this morning. Our supplier, Argent, is currently investigating what happened and has assured us that any necessary lessons will be learned.”

He said the company’s engineers were working through the affected vehicles and normal levels of service were expected to resume by tomorrow (Tuesday, December 5).

He added:

“In the meantime, our advice to customers is to check before travelling on the free Transdev Go app and if your service is cancelled today, please let us know and we will send you a voucher for a free trip next time.”