A COLCHESTER woman claims she was forced to drive to Stansted after fearing she would miss her flight when the bus she was due to catch "disappeared" from a tracking app. 

The woman, named only as Susan, had been waiting for the X20 First bus which runs to the airport. 

The X20 bus route starts at Colchester railway station and passes through the city, before moving on to Braintree and Great Dunmow ahead of its final stop at Stansted Airport.

But while waiting at a city centre bus stop at 4.30am, Susan says the bus disappeared from the First app leaving her fearing she would miss her flight. 

Susan, from Colchester, said: "I'm really disappointed and fed up, that’s the first and last time trying to use the X20 bus to Stansted.

"I so wanted to use this service and use public transport for environmental reasons but as I can’t rely on this service I simply won’t try again, it's a real shame."

Gazette: Vehicle - A bus a part of the X20 routeVehicle - A bus a part of the X20 route (Image: First Bus)

First says the bus driver scheduled for the 4.45am service called in ill, meaning another driver had to cover this shift.

The cover driver arrived at the station 14 minutes late, but still managed to turn up to the airport on time.

First Bus users can utilise the First Bus app, featuring live bus tracking, timetables and help with journey planning. 

Susan said: "The bus was showing up on the live departure board and the app just fine, until around 4.46am where the bus just disappeared from the app and the bus had still not turned up.

"There was no notice, nothing."

Panicking that the bus would not show up at all, Susan rushed home to drive to Stansted, fearing she would miss her flight.

"There was also a young lady waiting and she was going to miss her flight home, so we were able to give her lift too."

Luckily, both women were able to get to their flights on time, despite no bus turning up.

A First Essex spokesman said: “We would like to apologise for the inconvenience caused by the late running of the 4.45am X20 service on December 12. The service ran 14 minutes late due to an operational issue.

“We are investigating the issue with the app and wholeheartedly apologise that the information was inaccurate in this instance.

“We would like to invite the person to get in touch with us directly so we can better understand the issue and take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”