A BUS firm has hit back at claims it ripped off passengers who spent more than 12 hours travelling to and from London.

Passengers travelling on the Eurosun coach from Great Yarmouth to London’s Hampton Court Palace on Sunday, July 8, boarded the coach at 7.30am and were still being driven around the capital at 3pm.

In a written reply to the Mercury, a spokesman said: “This trip in question was on Sunday, July 8, which was the Wimbledon final. We knew this and allowed more time for the journey but due to the flooding the week before, the M4 was closed all weekend due to large cracks developing in the road.

“This caused major congestion in London around Hampton Court, Heathrow and Wimbledon.

“There were also festivals in London and many roads closed off and diversions in place.”

Angry passengers said that they were drive round in circles and kept seeing the same place over and over again and when they questioned the driver, he admitted he did not know where he was going.

“The driver had a sat nav and all the postcodes for the destinations and knew exactly where he was going but couldn’t get to destination due to roads closed and traffic jams. For this trip at London on July 8 we were subject to extreme traffic conditions and took more than three hours to travel 10 miles.

“Because of the delay in London the driver couldn’t complete the journey in his legal driving hours and therefore we sent another driver out to complete the last two hours of the trip. This occasionally happens and a replacement driver was found, in order to keep within the legal guidelines.”

The spokesman added: “In transport we cannot always predict weather conditions, traffic conditions, theatre seating, road closures. We can only make reasonable checks before the commencing of a journey. Certain things are beyond the company’s or driver’s control.”

In this instance, the spokesman said: “The customers decided they wouldn’t have long enough at Hampton Court, and decided not to go, and therefore the driver dropped them off at Holburn instead, for three hours freetime.”

He said: “In our terms and conditions it states that we would reply to any complaints within 14 days. This gives us time to interview the driver, collect tachograph evidence and to find out exactly what happened. In this case the customers were told that they would receive a reply within this timespan, but they failed to await a response.”