Campaigners have accused metro mayor Dan Norris of giving bus passengers an impossible choice between reducing frequency or reliability. Pressure group West of England Shared Transport and Active Travel Network says this is like asking residents whether they would prefer “steering the Titanic further toward the iceberg or making the hole in the hull bigger”.
Mr Norris held a series of public meetings last week called Big Choices on Buses where he asked people to help him come up with ways to save routes and keep communities connected. It came after the West of England Labour mayor and First Bus warned of more cuts to services from October when the Government’s Covid funding ends, while a bus driver shortage and spiralling costs have already put a number of previously profitable routes at risk.
Mr Norris said the response to his meetings, from Monday to Thursday, August 1-4, had been overwhelming and the public had approached them with an open mind and were willing to compromise and consider radical alternatives. But WESTACT, formerly known as Moving Bristol Forward, says the sessions only go to show the privately operated bus system is “completely broken” and that the fact services from the city centre to nearby villages are in jeopardy is “farcical and tragic”.
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It says the metro mayor’s Big Choices on Buses meetings would be more accurately named “small choices” because of the limited options available which all simply accepted cuts were inevitable. Emilia Melville, who is on WESTACT’s steering group, said: “It is like being on the Titanic and being asked to choose between steering further toward the iceberg or making the hole in the hull bigger.
“This ‘consultation’ was announced at very short notice – on a Thursday to take place the following Monday to Thursday – in locations that aren’t easy to get to unless you happen to be local. The responses are expected by the end of August, a month when most people are on holiday.
“The West of England Bus Strategy sets out an ambitious and positive plan for buses, but cutting existing routes in the meantime will reduce ridership and make it harder to implement. At a time when we urgently need to get cars off the road, having a conversation about cutting the bus routes that people rely on to get from villages five miles from Bristol into Bristol city centre is farcical and tragic.
“This situation shows that the privately operated bus system, which has been called an ‘extreme form of privatisation’, is completely broken.” Steering group member Rob Bryher said the ability to get around the region should be a statutory right provided through “timetabled, reliable and affordable regular routes, with a minimum of an hourly service from 6am to midnight in all areas”.
He said other cities and countries showed this was possible, such as Switzerland where a “pulse-based” timetable runs regular services that arrive at a central point simultaneously to allow travel in all directions and stopping at local stations along the way at the same time past the hour. WESTACT chairwoman Margaret Boushel said the decision by the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), which Mr Norris leads, for an “enhanced partnership” with bus operators instead of franchising, similar to how Transport for London works, did not give it the power to create a clean, affordable network.
Mr Norris said: “There are huge challenges on the buses at the moment. Government covid funding ends in October so there is a financial cliff-edge and with more home working and internet shopping fewer journeys are being made than pre-pandemic so less money is coming in from fares.
“But even if I had all the money in the world, and regardless of if buses are run by commercial companies or not for profit, there’s another problem, and that is a serious nationwide shortage of bus drivers. I think it’s only right that I let as many people as possible know about these issues and listen carefully to what bus users and would-be passengers have to say.
“I’ve been blown away by the response – packed public meetings, hundreds getting in touch online and lots of listening events springing up across the region run by community groups. I’ve also been heartened by the way in which local people have really come to this with an open mind – willing to make trade-offs and compromises and look at new ideas like Uber-style shuttle minibuses.”
He previously said there would be short-term pain for some passengers but that the situation would improve when hundreds of millions of pounds from the Government became available for Weca to use on buses next year.
Read next:
Villagers living just eight miles from Bristol 'isolated' if First Bus service axed
WECA mayor calls urgent bus cuts meetings for residents to have their say
First Bus boss says sorry for 'unacceptable' cancellations
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