FOREST buses operators are forecasting massive confusion in the coming months as news seeped out this week that they have all lost their contracts to operate on county council subsidised routes.

Gloucester company, Circle Line, has been offered the lot and will be paid £196,000 to operate on 13 routes.

"I can see problems ahead. All the Forest buses companies have lost out and none of us can see how they care going to set it up," said James Bevan, owner of James Bevan (Lydney) Ltd.

"I had two of the routes for which I was paid £100,000. It was good money but not enough to pay the interest on new buses. I tendered £5,000 lower for the routes – Lydney to Monmouth and Lydney to Cinderford – this time and still lost them.

"My buses were running continuously for 10 hours every day on those routes and 99 per cent of the time we did not let anyone down. Circle Line have now got the lot for just £96,000 more than I was paid. It doesn't add up," he said.

Among the services lost by local companies are those to Wyedean and Heywood schools.

"The County Council have put all their eggs in one basket and it will be interesting to see what happens," said Mr Bevan.

"The two routes I had for 12 months were extra ones for me. I will be laying two drivers off and carrying on as we did before. There is a lot of confusion at the moment and it will be interesting to see what happens.

"I understand that Circle Line has the work for four years. By then a lot of us in the Forest will not be interested in tendering again."

Workers who take buses to one of the area's biggest employers, Rank Xerox at Mitcheldean, are particularly worried that the changes will leave them stranded.

However operators were quick to say that they were trying to make sure everyone who had been a regular traveller was covered.

Mrs Sue Willetts, whose company has had to drop two of the major routes covering Xerox, from Coleford and Lydney, said she had been trying to make arrangements to cover her customers, including people trying to get to work.

"We had to drop the services, which were not subsidised, because we were trying to run them commercially. We found they were making only about £30 a day which doesn't even cover the fuel. It was suicidal," she said.