‘This is a problem that affects bus passengers, and drivers, all over Britain, not just in London’, said Bus Users UK chairman Gavin Booth. ‘We can’t understand why buses aren’t routinely fitted with heater controls that the driver can use to turn off heaters’.

Bus Users UK understands that many buses have heaters that can only be turned off by engineers, and has been told of major bus companies whose engineers can only turn heaters on and off twice a year.

‘Naturally passengers are incredulous on hot days not only to find buses with the heaters on, but to be told by the driver there is nothing that can be done: only an engineer can turn the heating on and off’ said Mr Booth.

Inevitably ‘health & safety’ is cited for drivers not having access to heater controls in engine bays, but Bus Users UK is concerned about the health & safety of bus passengers, who can be put in danger when summer temperatures soar if buses are even hotter thanks to heaters being left on. The converse can apply in the depths of winter when heaters have been left off. Buses have to be checked over every day before they go into service and Bus Users UK is calling on bus operators to ensure that in periods of hot weather like that being experienced just now, those checks should include ensuring heaters are turned off on buses with no controls in the cabs: and in spells of cold weather, like that endured in February, they should be checked to ensure heaters are on.

We also call on manufacturers to ensure that buses are fitted with adequate controls to enable drivers to respond appropriately when passengers complain a bus is too hot or too cold. ‘The scenario of a bus out all day with the sun beating down on it, running with a full standing load and heaters left on is too horrendous to contemplate’, says Gavin Booth. ‘Only this week we have heard of two police dogs dying from heat exhaustion in a police vehicle; how long is it before a vulnerable person dies on a bus in such conditions? Let’s get this nonsense sorted before it comes to that’.