Next month bus users from Bristol and South Gloucestershire will hold a protest to demand buses are taken under public control and run as a public service by the West of England Combined Authority (WECA). This comes after 178 First bus services were scrapped last month in the West of England in addition to a further 1,450 bus journeys cancelled each week.
The campaign group has written an open letter calling on Metro Mayor, Dan Norris and all WECA group leaders to suspend the deregulated bus market and provide a franchised bus service. Currently 768 people have put their name to the letter with most of them commenting on the personal difficulties the poorly run bus service has caused them.
Laura Fogg-Rogers is among those leading the ‘Reclaim our buses’ campaign which will hold its first public demonstration in Kingswood next month . The environmental researcher and mum of two, who lives in Winterbourne, said people in her community are furious about the buses which have resulted in job losses and children getting detentions for being late.
READ MORE: First Bus just cancelled 1,450 Bristol bus services a week until at least April
Ms Fogg-Rogers sits on the steering committee of The West of England Shared Transport and Active Travel Network (WESTACT) who are campaigning for better public transport in the region. She said the franchising model has not been implemented in the region because the various local councils who make up WECA have failed to communicate, so they will be targeting council leaders next month in South Gloucestershire to demand cross party talks take place to initiate a franchised bus model.
Ms Fogg-Rogers said: “We need a joined up voice rather than the Local Authorities fighting, like they have done. Where I live in Winterbourne there are no buses, further up into the village there is one bus but it takes an hour and a half to get into Bristol when it can take 15 minutes in a car.
“We used to have regular buses and before Covid we used to have two an hour which wasn’t brilliant but they did mostly turn up. During Covid bus usage declined and now we have this driver shortage as well, people are reporting that they just don’t turn up or they will turn up and they’re full.
“What people are doing now is they’re getting a family member to drop them to the metro bus which has been taken over by First, and they are not even turning up now when they used to be every ten minutes. There’s loads of people whose kids need the buses for education and they can’t get to school on time and people who have lost their jobs for being late, people are really angry.”
In the recent round of bus cutbacks Winterbourne lost two of its bus services, the Y4 and the Y3. Their only option to get into Bristol if they don't drive is the now the Y6 which is hourly but often delayed, full or fails to show up.
The service is unreliable and means residents who often need to travel into Bristol to work and study are completely cut off. Ms Fogg-Rogers said the situation has deteriorated to the point where neighbours are considering leaving her village as a result of the poor bus service
Rob Bryher who is also part of WESTACT said that the deterioration of bus services has impacted everyone. Where he lives in St Werburghs, there is no longer a reliable bus service which disproportionately impacts on elderly and disabled people as well as those on low incomes who can’t afford a car.
Residents in St Werburghs and communities along the number 5 bus route came together to save their bus service, which has now been replaced by the 47. The 47 cuts off Stapleton village but is also an hourly service which travels all the way to Yate making it more subject to delays.
Mr Bryher said: “You're getting a lot of cancelled buses because of the driver shortage which is down to Brexit. We have the 47 but it’s not frequent enough as there’s only one every hour.
“It’s a perfect storm at the moment, the frustration is people trying to get to where they need to get to and then getting on the bus to find it's absolutely packed because there've been so many cancellations.
“It’s not going to be the richest people in the city who are affected by this, it’s going to be the people who can’t afford a car. It’s absolutely unacceptable that someone should have to wait over an hour for a bus in a major city.
“The horror stories I’m hearing from people who get it every day and that it’s hard. In the inner city you’d imagine there are other options and there are but for some people due to their disability, age or that they need to get to somewhere further away that have to get the bus.
“Dan Norris needs to bite the bullet and set up a franchising system otherwise we can’t control anything in regards to the buses. We can’t guide the routes or the quality of the service.”
The new campaign will officially launch on Wednesday December, 14 at 6.15 where a demonstration will be held on Kingswood high street outside the civic centre and people are encouraged to wear hi vis and glow paint. For more information about the demonstration please see the Facebook event and the open letter to WECA can be found here .
A spokesperson for First West of England said: “In early October we implemented service changes designed to balance customer demand with available resource to deliver reliable services for our customers. The changes were a result of changing post-pandemic demand which has seen passenger numbers fall by around 25 per cent compared to pre-Covid figures. The effects of this have been further impacted by driver shortages, which are being felt by the rest of the industry but are particularly acute in our region.
“The very last thing any transport operator wants to do is reduce or cut services. We recognise the impact such changes have had on some of our communities, such as Winterbourne and those previously served by service 5, and we are truly sorry for those who have been affected.
“At the time we made the changes our data showed that passengers did not use these services in sufficient numbers and were unlikely to return in the future. Along with the significant driver shortages, this meant we simply had no choice but to withdraw or reduce such services and ensure we focused on running buses where there were enough customers travelling.
“We continue to work with local authorities and partners to adapt services in a way that remains sustainable for the longer term, whilst seeking to provide customers with the reliability that meets their needs. The West of England Combined Authority has responsibility for determining where tendered services can fill gaps in the network where there is a social need, subject to the ability of operators to recruit sufficient drivers to run them.
“As regards the running of the m1 bus service, we apologise for any issues, but again are being challenged by driver shortages. However, we have embarked on a major driver recruitment campaign to address this situation.”
READ NEXT:
First Bus apologise for 'walking sucks' message on branded water bottle
RMT slams First Group for profit rise as bus workers dispute pay
First Bus admits 'live bus tracker' only predicts when buses are supposed to arrive
First Bus cancellations in Bristol causing school run chaos says mum
Calls to end further bus cuts as dozens of services axed this month
