Big Green Coach Company respond to Ed Sheeran fan complaints after waiting for hours in the rain for shuttle bus

Ed Sheeran played two shows across the weekend, with over 150,000 people in attendance on the park for the first time in over a decade.

However, many fans who had purchased shuttle bus tickets were left disappointed after queuing in the rain on Sovereign Street in Leeds on Friday night.

The queue snaked twice around Sovereign Square and late fans were told they may have to wait up to two hours to get a space on a bus to the park.

A raft of fans took to social media to complain about the service.

Many said they were expecting to get straight onto a bus after pre-booking but were instead made to wait and queue for a wristband.

The company have now responded to the complaints in full.

They said they understood the waiting times on Friday were longer than they expected.

A spokesperson said: "The customer waiting times on the Friday in Leeds city centre were over what we would expect.

"The main issue we faced on Friday was the weather.

"The adverse conditions meant that the majority of the customers travelling from the city to the site arrived at Sovereign Street during the same period.

"Our conversations with customers on the day showed us that people delayed their journey up to the site to reduce their time spent in the terrible conditions.

"Unfortunately, this meant that queues during that period and therefore waiting times were high.

"Any city centre location is difficult to manage, especially with rush hour traffic and limited space to organise a queue system but the sudden arrival of thousands of customers quickly meant that our queuing systems and ticket sales became extremely busy.

"There were plenty of buses on the service and we were constantly loading vehicles, but the sheer volume of people meant we had some long waiting times."

The company said that Saturday ran a lot smoother due to reduced traffic in the city centre and surrounding areas.

The statement said: "In the lead up to the event, we worked closely with the council and promoters in developing plans for the shuttle bus service based on previous shows in the same location.

"The service on Saturday ran very smoothly and we have received several commendations from customers for this.

"The Saturday was a totally different story. With sunny skies all day, customer arrival times were more staggered, and we’d already transported thousands of people by the same time our first bus had departed the previous day. This steady flow of people allowed for a smooth running service with limited waiting times for all customers. Whilst weather was a huge factor; we put in more plans for the Saturday, including more staff and queuing infrastructure to ensure we could operate efficiently.

"The egress period after the show on each evening ran smoothly from our point of view. We were tasked with managing the loading process and the site was cleared of customers within good time. We understand that conditions were difficult for customers as the main queue was on a grass area, but this was the only safe way to hold the volume of people at that location. We advertise that shuttles would run until midnight and the area was clear of all customers by 00:45 on each night."

The Big Green Coach Company said they had over 60 double-decker buses operating on the shuttle to and from the site.

They said they worked "closely with the security, event control and traffic management teams both in the lead up to the event and during the operations.closely with the security, event control and traffic management teams both in the lead up to the event and during the operations".

The statement continued: "There were contingency plans in place but the sheer volume of customers arriving in a short period of time meant we were finding it hard to reduce queue waiting times despite a constant service, which saw at least 3 buses loading every few minutes. There was some confusion amongst customers as the start of the queue system was forming away from the original infrastructure. We worked hard to reduce the queue as quickly as possible but waiting times remained constant throughout the afternoon."

The company also responded to specific complaints made about the queue system and wrist-banding operation.

The statement said: "We had a mixture of pre-booked customers who had either e-tickets (both printed out and shown on phones) and customers who bought on the day. The perception to customers was that we had 2 queues, but this wasn’t the case.

"The only safe and suitable place to situate our ticket office (a converted bus) was part way along the queue system. This meant we sold wristbands and exchanged pre-booked tickets for wristbands at this location. We wristband all customers to ensure a quick and smooth loading process at the end of the night. After any show everyone leaves at the same time. We want to concentrate on getting everyone on a bus quickly and a line of people showing wristbands rather than loading up emails or unfolding wet paper tickets allows this to happen."

The company said they will be "making a further statement alongside the event organisers as and when the debriefs have been completed".