I sometimes wonder if the masterplan of Southampton’s bus companies is to drive people from cars by simply causing as much congestion on routes into Southampton as possible.

One only has to stand in Shirley High Street, one of the most congested and polluted roads in Southampton, and count the convoy of almost empty buses following each other down the street.

This may be understandable if they had all converged from different routes but frequently one can see two with the same route number following each other into town.

Thankfully many buses are now being upgraded and cause less pollution but thought needs to be given on how to prevent traffic coming to a standstill every time a bus stops.

Unless more thought is given to the position of bus stops and provision of pull-ins for these buses any savings made by reducing bus emissions will be cancelled out by the long line of cars sitting idling in the queue waiting for the bus to move off.

It would seem that privatisation of bus services simply works for the profit of bus companies and pays little heed to the needs of the travelling public.

Councils are forced to subsidise uneconomical routes and the bus companies are only interested in chasing each other for passengers on others.

No doubt some will say if we all use the buses the traffic problems will cease but in many cases no convenient service exists.

Unless services are improved and profit is not the overriding consideration I doubt that we will see a significant change in future.

CHRIS HINDS, Regents Park, Southampton.