Air-conditioned buses should be a must on longer public routes, a senior user of the service said yesterday.

Elizabeth Adams, 71, said she was at her “wits end” over the failure to use AC-equipped buses on long runs.

She said that the buses in use on long-haul journeys “have their windows open, the driver is burning up, and the passengers are uncomfortable”.

Ms Adams added: “We have politicians that are supposed to be doing their job. I don’t understand why they would have these short routes air-conditioned and not the lengthy routes when these people are suffering.

“It’s just wrong. Where is the mentality? Where is the thinking?”

Ms Adams, a volunteer with three island charities, said that she depended on the bus service, which she often used several times a day.

She added that the lack of air conditioning on some buses, combined with summer humidity, triggered her asthma.

Ms Adams said: “The air conditioning does help.

“As soon as I walk into my house I put the air conditioning on. I stay in as much as I can in the afternoon.”

She said that a “second look” should be taken at how buses were deployed.

Ms Adams added: “I believe that if they are going to be using air conditioning, they should use it on the lengthy routes — from Hamilton terminal to St George’s and Hamilton terminal to Dockyard.”

Roger Todd, the director of the Department of Public Transportation, said yesterday that an “air-conditioning campaign” had been launched by the department. He was speaking at a press conference held by Zane DeSilva, the Minister of Transport to publicise an increase in the number of buses on the roads.

Mr Todd said that some models of bus in the fleet were “particularly problematic”.

He added: “We have a programme in place to address that, as well as the older units.

“Our position is that if it has an AC unit on the roof, it should be working.”

The transport ministry did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.