Business chief Charles Forgan said he had a job to get to work when he took the advice of Bradford's transport chiefs and decided to go on the buses.

Now Mr Forgan, secretary of Bradford Congress and chief executive of Bradford Breakthrough, is back in his car after a problem-fraught journey from his home in Greengates to the city centre.

But today, Bradford's biggest bus operator welcomed Mr Forgan's criticisms of the service and pledged to investigate how they could improve it.

Bradford Traveller operations manager Khadim Hussain said Mr Forgan's views would be looked into.

Mr Forgan said his four-mile ten-minute journey by car to work took him an hour-and-a-quarter by bus - almost the equivalent of a journey to Darlington.

And he suggested transport chiefs should put their feet in the shoes of motorists using buses for the first time.

He added facilities were geared to an assumption that users were regular passengers who know the routes off by heart.

He said his difficulties included:

Route numbers not being displayed outside the city centre

Timetables not being displayed at some bus shelters

Timetables being unreadable after dark

"Anyone can find their services in the London Underground with clear directions and diagrams and maybe they could try something similar here," said Mr Forgan.

"As a motorist doing business all over the city I decided to find out how to do it by bus. I think those who market the services see through the eyes of people who are used to public transport."

And he said he had waited half-an-hour for his bus to arrive, but admitted he had not checked the times beforehand.

Mr Hussain said Bradford Traveller was not complacent and had introduced its multi-million pound Sovereign Services to match the quality and comfort of the car.

He said new bus shelters with lights had been installed in Manningham Lane, timetables in shelters were sometimes removed, and the company was looking at London Underground-style passenger information systems.

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