Buses in Bristol are in ‘a mess’ and a ‘shambles’ and should be brought back under local authority control, the South Bristol MP Karin Smyth has said.
The MP has called on West of England metro mayor Dan Norris to start to use the powers he has available to take back control of the public transport system in the Bristol area, and run the buses under a franchise system. Mrs Smyth said she had been deluged with letters from constituents across South Bristol complaining about the state of the bus services, both before and after First announced it was cutting 1,450 timetabled bus journeys a week across the city.
It said the move was to make the timetable a more realistic match to the reality at the depots, where First is experiencing a shortage of 150 drivers. In a letter to all the constituents who had written to her about the state of the buses, the Labour MP said: “Buses in our city are in a mess.”
