SIR — I have been a monthly pass holder and a regular passenger on the 7.20am Minehead-Taunton Service 28 route of First for a number of years now.

Recently I have seen this service deteriorate rapidly whilst the fares increase with equal rapidity!

The quality of buses sent has been consistently poor, both in reliability and cleanliness. It is a long and difficult enough journey as it is, and is not helped by having to travel on a bus that looks like it has come straight from a Hi-De-Hi episode and has windows that are sometimes so filthy that you cannot see through them.

May I also suggest some form of survey be carried out to ascertain when the buses are likely to be busy and when they are likely to be quiet. All too often a bus turns up that is wholly inappropriate for the number of passengers likely to board.

During term time, in the mornings when many students are travelling to college, a regular sized bus is sent which is often full to capacity long before Taunton. On several occasions there have been people standing on the 40 seater bus by the time it arrives at Williton, yet during the school holidays a double decker that looks like it has not seen the light of day for ten years will be sent to pick up sometimes four or five people.

And as for Fridays . . . at the top end of Taunton the bus turns in to collect people from the railway station. On a Friday afternoon when the bus stops there, the station is invariably crowded with families on their way to Butlins. There are often queues of over 100 people waiting there for the bus, all with luggage and most with young children!

It is not fair on either the local and regular passengers or on the poor holidaymakers with their families who have probably travelled hundreds of miles, only to have to stand for the last hour on a crowded bus!

Luckily, as I board at the bus station in Taunton and at The Parade in Minehead (both the first stops in town), I do not usually have the misfortune of having to stand for the journey, which, suffering from MS as I do, is a godsend.

But last Friday has changed that. I went to board my regular bus, at my regular time, at my regular stop (first stop after Butlins) only to find that there were already several people standing and it was full of holidaymakers with their children and luggage.

Unfortunately, standing on this bus for the duration of the journey, approximately one hour 20 minutes, was not an option for me with my condition.

Consequently, I had to miss that particular bus and catch the next one, thereby making me late for work by two hours. I luckily have a very understanding boss!

In these times of massive pollution etc, we are constantly being persuaded to use modes of transport other than personal motor vehicles. What incentive is there for anyone to use public transport if the service provided is such a shambles?

Name and address supplied.