‘Bus cuts’ back in the news

Thursday 9th February 2023

Tuesday’s newspapers gave a strong sense of déjà-vu with reports of yet another impending bus cuts cliff edge as post Covid funding for bus services comes to an end on 31st March with registrations for any service withdrawals/amendments from that date due within the next week.

We’ve been here twice before, firstly prior to Bus Recovery Grant being introduced and secondly before it was extended beyond its initial phase. The DfT has a habit of leaving announcements on funding to the very last minute leading to scare stories of this kind in the media which do nothing to encourage passengers and further undermines confidence in using bus services. My guess is funding will be extended once again but I suspect only for a short period, meaning we’ll be back here again later in the year. This short termism is hardly a sustainable way of funding bus routes that aren’t generating enough revenue to justify their continuation.

Either a longer term commitment needs to be given to funding – for example through an enhanced BSOG (Bus Service Operators Grant) for the next, say, five years (like Network Rail has a five year control period with agreed funding), or we need to get on with introducing the threatened cuts and put some of these unviable bus routes out of their misery once and for all.

A good example of dithering over whether to implement cuts to bus services has been played out in Kent during the past twelve months.

Regular readers will recall a year ago I wrote about Kent County Council’s need to save a whopping £2.2 million from its annual budget of £6.1 million for funding bus routes. It’s part of a cut in the Council’s overall budget for 2023/24 of £38 million which in turn is part of a £100 million saving over three years and comes on top of cuts worth £750 million over the last decade highlighting the reality of local government funding in recent years.

To achieve this scale of saving the Council held a consultation on its planned withdrawal of 38 bus contracts last Spring which after a lot of heartache were finally approved at a meeting of Full Council in October. The cuts come into effect from this weekend pretty much as originally planned with the main change being the retention of the Kent Karrier network of Dial-A-Ride routes.

Some of the cuts include those bus routes introduced with misplaced optimism as ‘Rural Pilots’ back in 2019. I travelled on and wrote about these soon after they were introduced. It doesn’t surprise me they’re now being withdrawn as there was never going to be enough passengers generated to justify the subsidy needed to run them. They were doomed from the off and it was just a matter of time before withdrawal.

One that survives this weekend’s cull is Nu-Venture operated route 13 between Hollingbourne and Maidstone which loses its Saturday service after this weekend but with the Monday to Friday timetable continuing. This is the route which involves a change of bus at Sutton Road on the east side of Maidstone for most journeys to and from Hollingbourne, making it less than ideal for passengers travelling into the town centre. 

Passengers using another Nu-Venture operated route – the 58 – are not so lucky. This ‘Rural Pilot’ introduced in July 2019 involving a change of bus on the west side of Maidstone for connections to the villages of Addington, Trottiscliffe, Wrotham Heath, Ryarsh and Birling will be withdrawn with Nu-Venture operating a Friday only shoppers journey to those villages as well as a Monday only return journey to East and West Malling from Wrotham Heath and Offham Green as a very limited replacement. Both these are operating at commercial risk and will be reviewed at the end of July as you can see from Nu-Venture’s website announcement below.

Other existing once a week shopping journeys which were threatened with withdrawal will all be cut ending a long tradition of linking communities across rural Kent with destinations such as Tenterden and Rye.

Although shopper buses operated by Regent Coaches are also ending its reported Stagecoach are planning to operate a DRT style replacement for residents of some of the villages wanting to travel to Whitfield on the outskirts of Dover. I understand this will start on 20th February so I’ll take a look at that development in in due course.

In the Sittingbourne area there’ll be a few gaps not least from the town’s nearby rural hinterland. Routes being withdrawn this weekend include all the 343/344/345 and much of routes 8 and 9 operated by Chalkwell which serve the villages of Newnham, Doddington, Lynstead, Teynham, Bapchild and Conyer.

I travelled on these routes last Spring and had a mixed experience of passenger use. Some journeys did well but others were lightly used and frankly didn’t stand a chance of surviving.

Another casualty is Go-Coach operated route E1 – the Edenbridge town service which I also took a ride on last April and found it a very lonely ride around the town, so it’s no surprise that it’s coming to an end.

Go-Coach also operate routes 474/475 linking villages in north west Kent including Longfield, Bean, Betsham, Southfleet and New Barn with Bluewater.

Although the whole service as currently formulated is being withdrawn Go-Coach are continuing a limited service to be numbered Connect 1 providing four circular journeys on Mondays to Saturdays. 

So it’s not all bad news for Kent residents; there are some crumbs of comfort with limited services continuing, although I can’t help thinking just like the once a week shopping journeys of old are now being withdrawn, these slimmed down new ones about to commence will similarly one day be gone too.

Meanwhile up in Leicestershire the same process is about to get underway with the County Council announcing plans to cut 26 bus services it funds, and remember this is all before any future of Bus Recovery Grant is announced.

One bus service definitely ending in a fortnight’s time on 25th February is route 159 between Hinckley and Coalville operated by Roberts Coaches.

I took a ride on this a couple of weeks ago to see how a typical Leicestershire rural-come-inter-urban route under threat of withdrawal is doing in its last gasp of life.

The route runs every ninety minutes with an 85 minute end to end running time taking two buses. It tales something of a circuitous route – I’ve highlighted it in red on the rather complex map Leicestershire County Council provide on its choosehowyoumove.co.uk website.

As you might be able to see some of the route is duplicated by other bus services – Arriva’s 15 links Ibstock and Coalville and Market Bosworth, Barlestone, Newbold Verdon have Arriva’s 152/3 into Leicester but there are no other alternatives into either Coalville or Hinckley from these locations.

I caught the 11:30 from Hinckley’s Crescent Bus Station leaving with six passengers on board. Two went to Newbold Verdon, two to Barlestone and two to Ibstock. We picked up one passenger near Barwell just outside Hinckley who travelled to Woodlands Farm, and other in Barwell itself who travelled the short distance to Stapleton. One more got on at Barlestone and travelled into Coalville, making for a total of nine for the entire journey. We passed the other bus which had eight on leading me to believe that’s a typical loading for an off peak journey.

I’m told in November 2022 route 159 carried 6,228 passengers which works out at around 13 per journey. The current subsidy paid by Leicestershire is around £60,000 per annum but Roberts Coaches wanted a substantial increase with the County Council declining to pay more. With two buses and 13 passengers per journey I can see why Roberts want some greater recompense, but with Council’s facing dire financial constraints I can see why Leicestershire hasn’t got any more money to hand over and it’s noteworthy Leicestershire didn’t reach the winners enclosure in the BSIP funding race.

The imminent loss of route 159 follows the withdrawal of other significant routes in recent times. These include route 19 between Melton and Nottingham, route X55 between Leicester and Hinckley via the villages and route 2 between Barrow and villages into Leicester, and now the 159. And for sure, it won’t be the last.

Another notable route withdrawal this weekend is TrawsCymru route T19 introduced in summer 2021 as a commercial venture by Llew Jones. It’s heritage goes back to Express Motors days when that company ran a competitive service to the Conwy Valley rail line between Llandudno, Betws-y-Coed and Blaneau Ffestiniog. I’ll comment more about this in a future blog alongside other developments in the TrawsCymru network.

Roger French

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