A BARNARDS Green couple planning to celebrate their second anniversary discovered to their cost the unreliability of present-day public transport.

To celebrate the occasion, Dr James Watts and his wife Louise decided to travel by bus to Worcester, where they had a table booked for 8pm at Browns restaurant.

They set out at 7pm to catch a number 46 First bus from the Green but, after waiting 45 minutes, they gave up and went to catch the 8.05pm train to the city. Although displays at the station showed the train as on its way, after another long wait the couple rang the Centro trains helpline to be told the service had terminated before reaching Great Malvern.

"By the time the train had been cancelled we decided to come home and have a Chinese," said Dr Watts.

"We would drive normally but we chose to go by public transport so we could drink. We were very disappointed and very, very cold."

First in the Midlands communications manager Dawid Maciejewski apologised for the 7.12pm bus not running but said had the couple waited a little longer they would have caught the 8.12pm service.

"These things don't happen very often," he said. "If one bus goes down on one of these routes, that's a significant thing for us. We're not allowed to lose more than one per cent of our scheduled journeys."