Last week I decided to use the Park and Ride service from Handy Cross to High Wycombe as an environment-friendly alternative to driving into the town.

I had previously used the service and found it to be very good. A fast direct journey to the railway station and a quick direct route back up from Wycombe Hospital.

This time I arrived at Handy Cross at 1.45pm and caught the 2pm bus.

To my surprise it did not descend down the adjacent Marlow Hill, but went round the Handy Cross roundabout and proceeded through Cressex, then through the Cressex Industrial Estate, down Desborough Avenue, turning right into Suffield Road, past the hospital and finally to my destination, the Railway Station.

So, instead of a 10 minute ride down the hill, the bus had taken 25 minutes and I was five minutes late for my dental appointment!

The journey back to my car was even more arduous. The 3pm bus arrived and transported us commuters to the bus station, where I waited in the bus for 10 minutes.

The bus departed and after climbing Desborough road, turned into the Cressex Industrial Estate and continued through Cressex to the Handy Cross roundabout and then to the car park. This journey took 35 minutes.

The current routes are not publicised on the buses, at either of the bus stops I waited at, or alongside the bus time tables.

So, previously, I would spend around 20 minutes to travel to Wycombe centre and back on direct buses. The same journeys now takes 60 minutes.

I could, of course, have driven to my Dentist; from Handy Cross to the start of Amersham Hill, which would take around seven or eight minutes.

So what is the point of the Park and Ride now? The incentive to use this ‘green’ initiative has virtually disappeared! Why on earth would the average driver park and wait for a bus, then spend an hour on that bus, if he, or she, can drive to the same destination and back in around 15 minutes?

John Laker, Marlow