A plea to extend a bus service running from Thornbury to Yate until June has been dismissed as an “election bribe”. The 622 service will now be axed from the start of April, along with many other subsidised bus routes in the West of England region.
Around 42 bus routes will be scrapped over the next few months due to huge inflation hitting the bus industry. Some cut-off areas will see a new dial-a-ride service starting next month, although this will not be a replacement for the subsidised routes about to be axed.
The three councils in the region — Bristol City Council, Bath and North East Somerset Council, and South Gloucestershire Council — said they couldn’t afford to increase the amount they pay to subsidise all of these services enough to cover rapidly rising costs.
