Bus operators face a double whammy when the Bus Recovery Grant, used to support certain routes when the pandemic resulted in passenger numbers plunging, finishes, alongside the £2-a-ride deal.
Both these will cease at the end of the summer, despite the extension of government support for a few months. Without a long-term funding commitment to keep buses running, cities, towns and villages will lose treasured lifelines that connect them to families, schools, jobs and essential services.
More than a thousand routes were lost last year, despite the best efforts of many councils to help from depleted budgets.
“Further devastating bus cuts will leave more people and places poorly served or with no public transport whatsoever”
The Government’s own National Bus Strategy looks like it will fail before the bus has taken off its handbrake, because of the effects of increased fuel costs and pressures caused by bus-driver shortages.
The Government has, rightly, backed the bus in London through a funding deal for Transport for London.
We urgently need ministers to do the same in the rest of the country, otherwise we face the prospect of further devastating bus cuts, which will leave more people and places poorly served, or with no public transport whatsoever.
With every day that passes without a long-term decision on bus funding, we risk more cuts being hardwired into bus operators’ plans for new timetables.
It’s now time to turn the fine words of the national bus strategy into a firm commitment to continue to “back the bus” in the years ahead.