Passengers were left confused and bewildered when a major part of Bradford Interchange was closed for refurbishment.

Most of the bus services departing from the Interchange changed stands as contractors moved in for a £1.7 million refurbishment which will take a year to complete.

Metro, which runs the Interchange, has come in for heavy criticism for failing to properly publicise the changes as rush hour passengers complained of being lost and delayed.

Passenger Margaret Clarke, who was left waiting an hour at the wrong bus stop yesterday, said she had seen many passengers wandering around the station in a state of confusion.

"I've had a terrible day,'' she said. "I've been standing at the wrong stop for about an hour. I don't think it has been publicised well enough. I didn't know about the changes at all. I'm a special needs teacher and a lot of my trainees were panicking because they didn't know where their buses were going from.''

Another passenger, Simone Bryan, 21, a customer services operator from Woodside, said: "I was held up because I couldn't find my bus and in the end I had to ask a driver. They should have put some leaflets out weeks ago."

But teacher Richard Ellis, 39, who catches a bus to Huddersfield from the Interchange every day, thought the changes had gone well.

"It's been fine. For the sake of doing the improvements I'm quite happy to put up with the inconvenience," he said.

Metro's Infrastructure Manager, Mark Beswick, was directing passengers to the right stop at the Interchange yesterday.

He said: "It's going remarkably well considering 28,000 people use this place a day and we've closed two thirds of it. There are obviously people who have had their routine disrupted but it will settle down after a few days. But people are a little confused today."

Mr Beswick said that Metro had taken on three more staff to direct passengers until the end of the year.

Reverend Geoff Reid, a member of West Yorkshire Passenger Consultative Committee, who accused Metro of flying "by the seat of its pants" in the preparations for the changes, said: "I'm glad that things haven't been as bad as they could have been. But it's clear that a number of things had not been thought through.''

Councillor Latif Darr, Transport member of Bradford Council's Executive Comm-ittee, said there had been a major problem with publicity and information.

"It was not clear at all to the passengers where their buses would be going from."

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