I refer to Mr Ayres’s comments about coast road bus services from Brighton (Letters, August 29).

I apologise for any delays people have experienced when using our buses during the busiest periods this summer. To put this in context, we have continued to increase the number of journeys operating on the coast road each year and this year there were twice as many scheduled journeys as there were just five years ago during peak periods.

New for this summer, we also added additional relief buses.

While language students visit every year and are very welcome, their numbers and times of movements vary hugely from day to day so we cannot, even with the best efforts of the schools they are studying at, predict reliably which journeys will face capacity problems. We do endeavour to anticipate where extra buses will be needed.

This year we also introduced interchangeable single tickets on services on the coast road so people could transfer from one bus to another even if they didn’t have a Saver ticket.

I will not ignore Mr Ayres’s concerns. We are looking to improve on the service for next summer and improve on how we manage all aspects of these services.

Martin Harris, managing director, Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company

I don’t agree with Arthur Ayres that we have the worst bus service in the country.

The problems he has experienced on coastal routes 12 and 12A recently are due to the success of these normally reliable routes.

At this time of year buses are slowed by the high number of passengers boarding and alighting at every stop and by visitors who are unfamiliar with the fares.

This results in buses bunching and long gaps occurring on lengthy routes such as the 12.

Brighton Area Buswatch has urged the bus company to increase the frequency of buses along the coast road to reduce overcrowding and enable a more regular service to be maintained.

We suggested running lots more buses on routes 14 and 14C between Brighton and Peacehaven, leaving more room on the 12s for those making longer journeys.

It is unfortunate the company decided not to increase the frequency of the 13X express service during the holiday period. Last year it was half-hourly during the wet summer and some buses ran empty. So it ran this service hourly this year – in fine weather buses have been full.

We hope the bus company will invest in some improvements to avoid a repeat of these problems.

Andrew Boag, chair, Brighton Area Buswatch

Arthur Ayres launches a tirade against Brighton and Hove Buses and its service along the coast road.

I’m sure the company does not set out to annoy its customers.

Traffic in the centre of Brighton at this time of year causes buses to run late. With a frequent service between Brighton and Eastbourne there is bound to be some bunching up at certain times.

I think the company provides an excellent service.

Trevor Bolton, The Green, Southwick