Wheelchair on bus - how can I help?

[TheTartOfAsgard]

I've seen a few posts re wheelchairs on busses (and commented on some) and hope someone can give me some suggestion on what I can do.

I live in a small village. Busses once every hour and 15 minutes. No train station. There's one bus at 7:20 that gets into the city for 8:30 so is always packed to the rafters with people going to work university and school, and I mean packed - people standing all the way up to the door. Next bus doesn't come until 8:35 and gets into the city at 9:50.
Everyone gets on the bus at the first stop in the town centre. No one gets on at the second stop. At the 3rd stop around 3 times a week is a lady in a wheelchair. On school holidays and the very odd occasion there is space the driver stops and lets her on, but most of the time just drives past. When I asked one of them why they did this he said that he can't force people to get off and he doubts anyone would because of getting to work/school on time, and also that the lady only gets on for 3 stops and then gets off.
It's a single decker bus due to a low bridge that it has to go under about half way to the city.

I feel really bad for the lady, you can see her face as the bus goes past, but I also struggle knowing that if I was to offer to get off the bus to make room (would need at least 5 of us to do this) I would be over an hour late for work multiple times a week and would most certainly get the sack.

I was thinking of emailing the bus company to either make them aware of what's going on or making some suggestions about what they could do, but I can't think of any suggestions.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Ooh, a difficult one. If she is going to work then it's unfair on her, but would also be unfair on those who would have to get off. If she is not specifically going to work, or another place where she has to be early in the morning, then, (as with pensioners and their free bus passes which cannot be used until after a certain time) she would find it much easier to travel around AFTER the morning rush. As we don't know her situation, and whether or not she is getting mobility benefits - which are surely for this very purpose, that is to allow someone with mobility problems to travel more easily - then it's hard to say. I am disabled, on crutches, and would certainly not choose to wait for a crowded bus at peak time, unless it was a dire emergency.

For those who do not understand equality.

I'm not sure if she's going to work or not, but I think it's likely she does. The stop she gets off at is in a type of bus station outside of a supermarket with other shops inside, where the bus stops for 5 minutes (and changes driver on some of the later trips) before departing. We have the same here whereas you can use a mobility bus pass after 9:30 but she pays to get on earlier which makes me think is a case of having to be somewhere at that time rather than choosing to travel when it's at it's busiest.

Dawn I have seen this pic multiple times, and understand its meaning and agree with it. I am wondering in this case how it applies? Genuinely interested to hear points of view.
Should n people be asked to get out of the bus to allow her the get in? If yes, who decides who should get off? I can't imagining people volunteering if they are all commuters and bus service is limited.

I wonder how you manage if you use a wheelchair and need to get the bus to work.
Its not like you can sqeeze on a busy bus,
If the bus is packed and there was a wheelchair space, how could you even get there, its not like the driver can empty it whilst you get on..
Puzzles me

The bus company will already be aware of passenger numbers from the reports from the ticket machines. It may be that it's just not financially viable. If they put on an extra bus for say, an extra 10 people, it's not going to make enough money to buy another bus, hire another driver etc for one route.