West of England bus passengers face more cuts as dozens of services to be axed in April
Photo: Aphra Evans
Bus passengers in the West of England are facing further cuts to the region’s struggling public transport network as about 42 bus services face the axe.
Because of a funding row, from April 2023 these publicly subsidised services will no longer be funded, and will most likely be withdrawn.
From April, passengers in many parts of the region will be able to catch new ‘demand responsive transport’ minibus services. The new dial-a-ride West Link minibus services will act almost like a shared Uber, running in Windmill Hill, Knowle, Brislington and St Annes, as well as large parts of North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
The service cuts were signed off by the West of England combined authority on 18 January, after the region’s political leaders heard how many of the services were crucial in connecting isolated communities and persuading drivers to use public transport instead.
The list of bus routes, which include some that faced the axe last year but were then saved, form a huge 60% chunk of the region’s total 69 subsidised services. However, it’s unclear exactly which bus routes are facing the axe in April, and a full and accurate list was not provided in reports to the combined authority meeting.
The news comes as the Cable has launched a callout asking the public about the impact of bus system chaos in the Bristol region. We’re currently investigating solutions that would make Bristol’s public transport better – starting with buses, and want to hear from you about recent experiences of getting the bus, to understand clearly the current problems.
Claims councils paying too little
During this week’s meeting, West of England metro mayor Dan Norris blamed the three council leaders — in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset – for paying too small a transport levy, which is used by the combined authority to deliver its responsibilities around transport. Norris said this year’s increase to the transport levy was below inflation, meaning service cuts had to be made despite these being “not acceptable”.
“It’s their [the three councils’] money effectively and they’re saying how it should be spent,” he said. “That’s not satisfactory from my perspective. We have a real-term cut in supported bus services because the levy has not increased.”
Norris added that the West of England levy is much lower than in other parts of the country.
“At the moment we have about £20 a head per year for our transport levy, and that compares to the ones at the top of the combined authorities in other parts of the country, that are £60 a head. There are huge reserves in some of our council areas that could perhaps be used in a way that deals with exactly these concerns, and that’s a political choice,” Norris said.
The metro mayor also repeatedly denied that the new West Link minibus services were replacing the subsidised services – despite West Link kicking in at the same time the 42 existing routes are withdrawn. A quirk in government funding rules means the West of England has tens of millions to spend on buses, but only in “new and innovative” ways.
Mr Norris added: “This is not a substitute for proper bus services, it’s a way of linking up people in more remote areas.”
He said he had asked the government if it’s possible to instead use the funding to support bus services that are under threat, but that “it was very clear that the answer from them was ‘no'”.
WECA ‘could demonstrate better value for money’
Responding to claims that the councils could spend more on the transport levy, South Gloucestershire Council leader Toby Savage criticised the West of England’s spending on new offices and temporary staff. He added that many of the council’s reserves are for specific areas, can’t be spent on saving subsidised bus routes, and the council has contributed as much as it can.
“There are resource decisions that are being made, which are perhaps not in the best interest of public transport users,” Savage said. “I’ve raised concerns in the past about the West of England’s new offices, and over-reliance on interim staff that are often much more costly. We could demonstrate better value for money.
Savage argued that the functions of combined authorities around the country varied, making direct comparisons unhelpful. “Some have trams or tubes, which therefore does inflate their levy. So you’re comparing apples and pears,” he said.
He added that South Gloucestershire’s reserves could not simply be released, with some – such as one that underpins the local authority’s waste contract – having specific functions.
The combined authority also faced warnings that the new demand responsive transport West Link minibus service would not be a solution in large urban areas such as Brislington, and introducing it on such a large scale so quickly could be “reckless”.
Labour councillor Tim Rippington, representing Brislington East, said: “Brislington has a population of over 22,000 people, a huge catchment area for public transport. However, the services simply are not there for people to use. The idea to introduce demand responsive transport to our area is not a solution.
“This may help a few people to get to places which are otherwise inaccessible to them, but it will do nothing to bring about the modal shift we need,” Rippington added. “Only the frequency of reliable bus services will do this.”
Demand responsive transport is “mainly designed for cut off and rural areas”, Rippington argued.
Confusion over services actually at risk
Liberal Democrat councillor Winston Duguid, chair of the West of England scrutiny committee, warned against taking a “big bang approach” on 2 April with the new West Link minibus services. He added that the West of England should lobby the government for extra powers and funding, to be able to sort out the region’s struggling bus network in the long term.
He said: “There’s a huge education campaign to be done if this is going to be successful in very limited time. We’re playing with people’s lives here, how they get to work, how they get to school, how they get to hospital appointments. To introduce this without a sufficient transition period is getting near to reckless.”
There is some confusion over exactly which services are being cut in April, or even how many. Papers to the combined authority meeting gave a long list of services which could potentially be subsidised, and a shorter list of routes which will continue to receive subsidies. But the long list also included services which don’t currently exist at the moment.
The West of England initially sent out a press release after the meeting saying 27 cuts would be axed – before later clarifying that 27 would be saved, and 42 would be axed. A list was then sent out of potential services facing withdrawal, which was “not double-checked for accuracy” and only included 36 services:
- 506 Bristol city centre to Southmead Hospital
- 179 Bath to Midsomer Norton
- 672 Bristol to Blagdon
- 185 Paulton to Trowbridge
- 636 Whitchurch to Keynsham
- 640 Bishop Sutton to Keynsham
- 668 Peasedown St John to Bristol city centre
- 683 Keynsham to Wells
- 757 Combe Hay to Midsomer Norton
- 172 Bath to Paulton
- 178 Midsomer Norton to Brislington Park and Ride
- 752 Hinton Blewett to Bath city centre
- 754 Hinton Blewett to Radstock
- 768 Bath bus station to Radstock and Midsomer Norton
- 52 Hengrove Park to Bristol city centre
- 516 Knowle to Hengrove Park
- 622 Chipping Sodbury to Cribbs Causeway
- 626 Wotton-under-Edge to Bristol city centre
- 511 Bedminster to Hengrove
- 512 Totterdown to Bristol city centre
- 513/514 Knowle to Brislington
- 17 Southmead Hospital to Kingswood
- 82 Radstock to Paulton
- 84/85 Yate to Wotton-under-Edge
- 623 Hollywood Lane to Cribbs Causeway
- 634 Tomarton to Kingswood
- 663 Somerdale to Chandag Road
- 664 Keynsham to Saltford
- 665 Somerdale to Longmeadow Road
- 684 Wick to Keynsham
- 22 Twerton to Bath Uni
- 202 Chipping Sodbury to Winterbourne
- 963 Patchway to Bradley Stoke and Winterbourne
- 948 Pucklechurch to Mangotsfield and Sir Bernard Lovell School
- 967 Westerleigh to Chipping Sodbury School and Brimsham Green School
- 680 North Yate to Chipping Sodbury and SGS College Filton
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In Bristol, many roads have been closed to traffic or are one way only, which causes traffic to travel a much longer distance to reach their destination, yet we have miles of ‘bus lane only’areas that cause more pollution and wear and tear on the few roads that are left for the main traffic users. With fewer buses on the roads, and some areas no longer having a bus service, it’s time for the main traffic to regain more of the roads that their taxes have paid to have laid, and will help to thin out the highly polluted areas.
I have the 91 to take me to Temple Meads, it’s every 65 minutes, when it turns up. Difficult if I want a train or a second bus to time return. The 511 is the only bus to Broadwalk for appointments. If this is taken off it will affect a lot of elderly who use it for shopping in Bedminster. We need a more frequent reliable service. Not less buses.