No bathroom facilities at two bus depots resulted in no bus service for the whole Island yesterday morning.

A short-term fix was made to address the issue and bus operators who had downed tools resumed normal service at around 10.30am.

Efforts are now underway to find a long-term solution to avoid the problem reoccurring.

The plumbing issues were at the St George’s and Devonshire bus depots.

The Royal Gazette understands that staff were unable to take bathroom breaks as a result and refused to start work until the faults had been repaired. Early morning bus services across the Island were scrapped, stranding morning commuters and at least one school field trip.

Government engineers were called in and the plumbing issues were resolved, according to a Transport Ministry spokesman.

“DPT management and staff would like to apologise to our residents and visitors who were inconvenienced this morning,” the spokesman said. “Plumbing issues at both the St George’s depot and Devonshire depot meant there were no bathroom facilities for bus operators.

“DPT management have worked with Works & Engineering staff to rectify the problem in the short term and have developed the way forward to ensure there are long term solutions so that these problems do not occur in future.”

Among those inconvenienced were 40 primary school students whose plans for an end-of-year field trip were thrown into disarray after becoming aware of the halted bus service, said one teacher who requested anonymity.

Despite chartering a bus for the end-of-year trip, the students were forced to take taxis as parents are not legally allowed to transport students on school trips.