IN response to Gordon Bullough's letter, "Where was my bus pass on April 1" (April 14), I would like to apologise that he has not yet received his free national travel pass.

We issued the vast majority of passes - 300,000 - by April 1, and have issued another 30,000 since then. We are also still receiving around 6,000 new applications each week.

Unfortunately, in some cases, the process has been delayed by problems with scanning people's handwriting, forms missing information and incorrect photographs being sent.

In these cases we have had to send forms back to applicants and this has taken longer than expected, which has had a knock-on effect on other applications. We have a dedicated team working on pass applications and we hope to deliver them in the next few weeks to everyone who applied prior to March.

I would like to stress that people can continue to use their old GMPTE passes for travel on buses, trains and trams within Greater Manchester until the end of September.

People who need to travel outside Greater Manchester, but do not yet have their new national travel pass, should visit Bolton's Travelshop in Moor Lane Bus Station - or any of Greater Manchester's other Travelshops - or call GMPTE on 0161 244 1050 for advice.

To clarify another point, bus services in Bolton - and most of the country - are provided by private bus operators, such as First, and it is these operators that set the times, routes and fares of the majority of services. GMPTE has no say in them.

However, GMPTE does fund around 18 per cent of the network in Greater Manchester using public money to provide essential services that otherwise would not run.

Finally, I would like to apologise again for any inconvenience caused to people who have not received their pass yet and assure them that they are on their way.

Michael Renshaw Interim service delivery director for GMPTE