Midland Classic buses heading out of Burton will temporarily cease using the stop on the left hand side of Union Street, meaning passengers will not be able to get on or off right outside Sainsbury's in Union Street.

Services around the town have had to be altered due to the three-month closure of St Peter's Bridge for vital repair work. The changes came in yesterday, Tuesday, September 12.

The bus stop on the right-hand side of Union Street, on the Cooper's Square shopping centre car park side of the road, will remain open as normal.

The bus company announced the change on its Facebook page, saying that the decision had come after the traffic situation due to the bridge closure had been monitored over several days.

Bosses at Midland Classic hope that, by diverting outbound services away from Union Street, the reliability of services can be improved during the bridge work.

As a result of the diversion, the company has announced buses will not be using the stop directly outside Sainsbury's, and will instead divert via Cross Street between New Street and Station Street. The closest stops for all services are now New Street and The Devonshire, in Station Street, said the firm.

Midland Classic has made some changes to routes due to the closure of St Peter's Bridge

The company put on Facebook: "This decision is necessary due to the severe delays and disruption to services that we have been suffering, caused the traffic congestion in Union Street. Inbound services are unchanged and will continue to serve the stop opposite Sainsbury's."

As many of the company's services go through Union Street before going on to serve other areas, such as Queen's Hospital, delays caused by traffic in the area due to the bridge closure are causing problems for drivers and customers.

Operations manager at Midland Classic, Michael Cartwright, said: "Traffic as queuing as far as Orchard Street and New Street and the roads in the middle of town are really congested. We are facing really long delays.

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"This is causing a knock-on effect and our services are being delayed, affecting our reliability.

"The biggest problem affecting us is the traffic's unreliability. If there was a consistent delay we would be able to manage, as we could change our services accordingly."

He added that the stop on Union Street is only being taken out of service temporarily, as the company deals with the extra traffic caused by the closure of St Peter's Bridge. The stop is set to be used again as normal when the bridge re-opens.

The bus company has been posting regular updates to its Facebook and Twitter pages to keep people updated when changes have been made to services or when they are running late.

Delays of up to an hour have been reported on the buses around the area as they tackle the increase in traffic over Burton Bridge.

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