A multi-million pound rescue package to stave off cuts to North East bus routes has been signed off – but the bailout will come at the expense of big plans for a huge transformation of public transport.
Council leaders have agreed to spend up to £12.2m to protect services at risk of being slashed, as they brace for private bus operators to wield the axe in the coming months. However, that cash comes from a pot of Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding that the Government had originally awarded the North East to make wide-ranging upgrades across the region such as cutting fare prices and renovating stations – not simply to avoid existing routes being slashed.
Members of the North East Joint Transport Committee (JTC) were told on Tuesday that, with passenger numbers not back to pre-Covid levels and Government support funding about to reduce, bus companies are soon expected to reduce their mileage across the region by between 10 and 20%. There have been warnings for months that such a move was on the horizon, with the Department for Transport’s Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) due to be withdrawn this month and be replaced by a less generous scheme.
