Frustrated commuters today criticised a high-tech bus information system in Castle Point after suffering months of misinformation, no information and now irrelevant messages.

The Travel Real-Time Information and Priority System (TRIPS) boards - situated at all five bus stops outside Benfleet train station - were still working to British summer time six weeks after the clocks went back.

Essex County Council officials pledged to rectify the situation within a couple of days, but three of the five boards have stopped working completely and the other two just display the message "what will it take you to stop drinking and driving?"

Exasperated Canvey-bound commuter Adam Clarke, 20, from Clifton Road, said: "These boards are just ridiculous. You're sitting, in the cold, at a bus stop - clearly you're about to get on a bus - you're not going to be driving anywhere. On the board that's supposed to tell you when your bus is coming, but doesn't, you've got this message scrolling telling you to think before you drink."

Spokesperson for the county council Mike Barnett said: "The system has been vandalised and the aerial has been damaged. The timetable has been updated but as the aerial has been broken the timetable isn't being transmitted."

Published Thursday December 18, 2003

Brought to you by the Evening Echo