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”.
