A national bus company has confirmed its full service will “restart as soon as possible”, after it started missing out Powys towns due to the pandemic.

National Express suspended the service at Llanidloes, Llangurig and Llandinam “twice as a result of the pandemic”.

Llanidloes county councillor Gareth Morgan said this service was a “lifeline” for these communities.

“I received a call from a passenger who had booked a ticket to go to Oxford,” Cllr Morgan said.

“She booked it back in May and she received an email from National Express last Saturday telling her they would no longer be calling in Llanidloes to pick her up or drop her off.

“That was Sunday, 7 August. She was proposing to travel on 13 August.”

The passenger was told she would have to “embark” in Newtown or Aberystwyth.

Cllr Morgan added: “This was appalling because on the return journey from Oxford the coach gets into Newtown two hours after the last bus has left for Llanidloes. What do you do? Get a taxi. How much does that cost? £60. That’s more than the bus to Oxford.”

A spokesperson for National Express said the company was rebuilding its coach network after all services were suspended due to Covid-19.

While the Llandinam stop is due to be reinstated on Friday, 27 August, both the Llangurig and Llanidloes stops do not have a proposed restart date but the bus company is hoping to restart them “as soon as possible”.

But Cllr Morgan said he doesn’t follow the logic of stopping the service due to the pandemic after he saw the service running in 2021: “They’ve been running throughout the pandemic. I’ve seen the coach stopping myself in Llanidloes. I live within a hundred yards of the stop.”

The spokesperson explained: “We appreciate some people have been disappointed with our current limited network and apologise for the inconvenience.

“We are working hard to safely get back to normal and welcome passengers back on board as quickly as we can.”

Cllr Morgan added: “It’s a very important bus service because we have no train service locally. You have to travel as far as Caersws to catch the train and there is no coordination between local bus services and the train service.”

Cllr Morgan also added Powys council has been informed National Express would no longer be stopping in Gro Car Park, due to safety concerns that Cllr Morgan agreed with, but instead would be stopping at Llanidloes High School. Cllr Morgan suggested a site next to Hafren Furnishers and Maes y Wennol Care Home as an alternative.

National Express could not confirm the location, which is “in discussion".