A CARE assistant says she will be forced to pay for taxi fares to get to work after First Bus said they would cut a service to her area.

April Holmes, from Tolladine, uses the 35 bus to get to work at Regent Residential Care Home in St John’s.

But the bus she uses to get home from work on Saturdays, the 35 route at 8.40pm, will no longer run.

This leaves her facing a £10-per-trip taxi fare - on top of the £20 she has already been paying to get to work and back on Sundays when no buses run to her area.

Mrs Holmes, aged 57 said: “What encouragement does it give you to work?

“From cutting down on buses I am forced to use a taxi which costs me £10 each way. That’s more than two hours work. It’s barely worth going to work.”

Mrs Holmes, from Linden Road, added: “I feel angry. They need to consider the workers that need to be in work at a certain time of the day.

“They don’t seem to care about people who work at the hospital or work in care. They should know that people in care have to work different hours, so they should have buses running at those times.

“I’m just annoyed. It’s always the buses that I have to use for work that are being cut. We just want a decent bus service.”

First Group announced the cut as part of a wider reduction in services from October 13. However, the firm says it is only cutting services that aren't being heavily used.

Councillor Richard Udall said residents had also contacted him about bus cuts in the Dines Green area.

He said: “Dines Green residents have told me they will have to give up work because of these cuts, young people will not be able to go to the city centre at night for entertainment, it’s really not good enough.”

He added: “We need a comprehensive public transport system suitable for the needs of residents, one which is affordable, reliable and responsive to the needs of the passenger."

A First spokesman said: “We are withdrawing two lightly used Friday and Saturday only trips on route 35. These journeys carried on average less than 10 passengers which is too low to continue operating.”

Nigel Eggleton, managing director at First Worcester said: “The upcoming adjustments we are introducing to our Worcester bus network are to meet the changing travel patterns customers are taking on each individual service across the city.

“We realise that some of the changes we are introducing may not be welcomed by the ‘small number of people’ that are using certain services at various times of the day, and they may cause some inconvenience.

“Our analysis generated from daily journeys taken by passengers across all our bus routes in Worcestershire clearly shows that the services, frequencies and timetables being introduced from 13th October will facilitate travel for the majority of people travelling by bus across the city.”

Mrs Holmes added: “Me nor my husband drive so I sometimes walk home if I’m on a late shift. I don’t really want to walk through town at night on my own though, I don’t think it’s safe.”

The 35 bus goes to Crowngate, Rainbow Hill, Brickfields Road, Langdale, Cranham Drive, Blackpole and then back through town.