Garnant mum humiliated after being refused ride on bus because of pushchair

A GARNANT mum has spoken of her humiliation after claiming she was refused a ride on a bus just because she had a pushchair.

Kirsty Jones wanted to board the 124 First Cymru service from Ammanford to Garnant.

But she claimed the driver did not give her the option of folding the chair and she was told she could not come on board.

First Cymru has rejected the claim, saying the driver did not refuse travel and was prepared to allow Ms Jones to collapse the chair, but that she had wanted to stand in the middle of the bus, blocking the exit.

But Ms Jones claimed she was forced to push her 18-month-old baby, Grace, four miles home.

"It was humiliating to be honest," said the 32-year-old single mother, who had been shopping in Ammanford with her daughter.

She claimed: "As I went to get on the bus the driver said he wasn't going to take us because there were already two people in the allocated pushchair spaces.

"He did not even give me the option to fold the buggy, like I have done before.

"He said he wasn't going to move the bus unless I got off."

Ms Jones said she had already paid for a return ticket and asked the driver for a refund for the trip back she could not complete.

But she claimed he told her to collect it from the Tycroes office two miles away.

She called her ex-partner, Christopher, to ask for a lift but he was at work so, she said, she was forced to push Grace four-and-a-half miles up the hill to their Garnant home in Cwmaman Road. This took an hour and twenty minutes.

"I have travelled on that bus before and I know the bays have three seats. But when they have been full in the past I have managed," she said.

A First Cymru spokesman said: "After we heard about the allegations we called the driver in.

"His story, which we totally believe, is that there were two pushchairs already on the bus and he asked [Ms Jones] to collapse her's.

"She wanted to stand right in the middle of the bus. We did not refuse her travel but we cannot block exits. The driver was not someone we've ever had a problem with."

alex.smith@swwmedia.co.uk

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