Stagecoach has added two more services to the number 10 route between Tuffley and Cheltenham, costing an extra �250,000 a year.

The company is blaming heavy rush hour traffic for failing to keep to its one-every-10-minutes timetable.

It is also considering adding an extra bus to the 94 route between Gloucester and Cheltenham at a cost of �110,000.

The timetable for this service has been revised three times in two years because of congestion.

No additional revenue

Managing director of Stagecoach West, Ian Manning, said: "Because the running times for us are getting more and more extended because there are more and more vehicles on the road, we need to inject these extra resources.

"These extra resources just to maintain the existing timetable are costing us an extra �250,000 for no additional revenue.

"We just couldn't operate the timetable we were doing before reliably."

Congestion is the first topic being discussed as part of a public consultation exercise launched in Gloucestershire last month.

Organisers of the Great Gloucestershire Debate claim that traffic on one commuter route could come to a standstill by 2011 unless the number of cars is reduced by a third.