An MP fears a city region bus route could be scrapped after he received a slew of complaints from passengers over the service.
Mike Amesbury, Labour MP for Weaver Vale, has had concerns over the number 62 bus, which serves Moore village, Sandymoor, Murdishaw and Halton Lea as well as stopping in Widnes, when running, since last year..
Mr Amesbury said he wrote to Warrington Borough Council chiefs in September over cuts to the 62 and received a response that driver shortages were to blame but that the service would "step up" once the situation stabilised.
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Since then he said he has received further complaints from passengers who said there was no 62 service at all between December 23 and January 4, and that the Saturday service remains infrequent, with the MP adding that students rely on the bus to attend Priestley College in Warrington.
A spokesman for Mr Amesbury said the council-owned bus company told him the route is on a reduced service and patronage is low, with no way to boost frequency without further Government funding.
Although there is some funding "for now", it was "nowhere near enough to cover costs as it was".
Mr Amesbury, who raised the issue in Parliament, said: “The future of the number 62 service is a big concern to me.
"We have had a general fall in bus passenger numbers due to covid and the financial support package from Government just isn’t there.
“The PM promised £3bn of 'new funding to level up buses across England towards London standards' as part of the Government’s ‘bus back better’ strategy which then shrunk to less than half at £1.4bn.
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"We seem to be left with ‘bus back worse’.”
The Labour MP, whose Weaver Vale constituency spans most of east Runcorn, Daresbury, Frodsham and Northwich pinned much of the blame for the UK’s public transport "woes" at the door of "Tory deregulation".
He said he welcomed the aim of Liverpool and Manchester's metro mayors Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham to create deliver London-style integrated transport systems make travel more quick, cheap and reliable.
Mr Amesbury's previous interventions include moving to protect the X1 Runcorn - Liverpool express from being scrapped and calling for action to deal with antisocial behaviour to prevent services being ditched in east Runcorn, particularly at Shopping City South by Trident Park.
The Government unveiled its Bus Back Better strategy in March 2021, which came a year after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the nation's buses would be transformed with simpler fares, thousands of new buses, improved routes and higher frequencies alongside £3bn of funding.
The figure has been challenged including by Mr Amesbury but the Government insists it is accurate.
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