The 26 subsidised bus services that would be axed if the Bristol region’s political leaders cannot strike a deal have been revealed. And even more could be at risk, depending on how transport bosses calculate which routes make the cut and which are axed.
Crisis talks last week between metro mayor Dan Norris and the leaders of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset councils collapsed without agreement over who should pay how much for “supported” buses, which rely on public money because they are loss-making but vital to serve isolated communities and places like hospitals. The urgent committee meeting of the West of England Combined Authority (Weca), which Mr Norris leads, was called by the council heads in the hope of breaking an impasse which came about despite members agreeing in April that the transport levy, which councils are obliged to provide for supported services, should rise by up to 10 per cent.
The increase is needed because the cost of buses has rocketed by 43 per cent amid soaring prices for fuel and drivers. It is understood the Labour metro mayor offered £2million from Weca to extend the current bus contracts, which run out in August so need renewing imminently, for 12 months while a longer-term funding fix was found but that this was rejected because four of the more costly routes would have been scrapped anyway.
Read more: Crisis talks over Bristol region's supported buses collapse
That followed a compromise put forward by B&NES council's Lib Dem leader Cllr Kevin Guy, backed by Bristol’s Labour deputy mayor Cllr Craig Cheney and South Gloucestershire Council Conservative leader Cllr Toby Savage, but the meeting on Thursday, May 26, ended without agreement. A date has now been arranged to reconvene the committee, which was adjourned, for Tuesday, June 14, while a report to the councillors and regional mayor - laying out the costs and consequences for routes from a number of funding options - named the services that would be lost if there was no increase in the levy.
The papers said three different criteria could be used in that instance to determine the specific routes, but the best-case scenario would see 26 of them cut. These are:
No 2 – Bath city centre to Mulberry Park to Bath city centre.
No 6A – Bath city centre to Fairfield to Larkhall to Bath city centre.
No 11 – Bath city centre to Bathampton.
No 11 – Avonmouth to Southmead Hospital.
No 12 – Bath city centre to Haycombe Cemetery.
No 17 – Southmead Hospital to Kingswood.
No 22 – Bath Uni to Twerton.
No 41 – Malmesbury to Yate.
No 59 – Marshfield to Bath city centre.
No 82 – Radstock to Paulton.
No 84 – Yate to Wotton-under-Edge (clockwise).
No 85 – Yate to Wotton-under-Edge (anti-clockwise).
No 202 – Chipping Sodbury to Winterbourne.
No 623 – Hollywood Lane to Cribbs Causeway.
No 511 – Bedminster to Hengrove.
No 512 – Totterdown to Bristol city centre.
No 515 – Stockwood to Imperial Park.
No 626 – Wotton-Under-Edge to Bristol city centre.
No 680 – North Yate to Chipping Sodbury to SGS College Filton.
No 663 – Somerdale to Chandag Road.
No 664 – Somerdale to Saltford.
No 665 – Somerdale to Longmeadow Road.
No 948 – Pucklechurch to Mangotsfield to Sir Bernard Lovell.
No 967 – Westerleigh to Chipping Sodbury School to Brimsham Green School.
No 963 – Patchway to Bradley Stoke to Winterbourne Academy.
The R3 – Twerton to Bear Flat to Ralph Allen School.
