Dozens of passengers in Harborough have seen their buses cancelled over the last few days

Dozens of passengers in Market Harborough have seen their buses cancelled over the last few days amid the Covid pandemic.

Transport giant Stagecoach have been forced to cancel over 20 services on the no18 route linking the town with Desborough, Rothwell and Kettering this week.

The huge national operator is being seriously hit by an acute shortage of bus drivers as well as other staff triggered by a local surge in Omicron cases over Christmas and New Year.

A Stagecoach spokesman told the Harborough Mail today: “As is the case with other transport operators and many other organisations, we are seeing a continuing impact on our staffing levels as a result of the pandemic.

"Our teams are working very hard to continue running our planned services for customers.

“However, due to the increasing numbers of employees impacted by the virus, we may not be able to run every service as planned and there may be some changes to services,” said the Northampton-based company spokesman.

“Where this is the case, we will ensure customers are updated through our customer channels with as much notice as possible."