3,000 bus routes are axed in just 8 years

More than 3,000 bus routes have been cut in the last eight years, analysis reveals.

The bus network has shrunk to its smallest size for 28 years – with more than 134million miles of routes lost over the last four years alone.

The dramatic decline across england and Wales, which has isolated many rural communities, has been compared to the Beeching railway cuts in the 60s.

Campaigners warned the elderly and those on low incomes have been hardest hit by the move by cash-strapped councils. one former government transport adviser described the state of our buses as a ‘national crisis’.

In a damning report, Professor David Begg also warned that rising levels of congestion could ‘destroy’ the bus sector, with some journeys ‘close to walking speed’. The report, commissioned by the Government two years ago, found journey times over the last 50 years have increased by almost 50 per cent in the most congested urban areas, including London and Glasgow.It said this is making services less reliable and helping to drive up fares as operators are forced to put on more buses.

Six in ten public transport journeys are taken by bus, with more than five billion made every year – three times that by rail.

But Freedom of Information requests to 110 local transport authorities by the Campaign for Better Transport revealed 2,900 services were ditched or reduced between 2010/11 and 2016/17. And it told the Mail this is set to rise to well over 3,000 when its report for 2017/18 is published next month. Town halls have scrapped subsidies that have propped up unprofitable but socially important bus routes. These often provide vital links for isolated communities, or connect people to GPs and schools. Since 2010 local council bus funding has fallen by a third – £100million – with two-thirds reducing spending on supported bus services. In many cases councils are having to divert funds to health and social care. Councils including Middlesborough, Lancashire, Isle of Wight, Southend- on- Sea in essex and Torbay in Devon have cut their entire bus subsidies.

David Brown, chief executive of Go-Ahead, one of the UK’s largest bus companies, said: ‘If there was a 30 per cent reduction in car parking spaces there would be an outcry.’ He added that if policy on buses ‘does not change buses will wither on the vine.’

Councillor Martin Tett, the Local Government Association’s transport chief, said: ‘Councils are finding it an almost impossible task to fund additional services and commercially unviable routes while having to fund the cost of free bus pass schemes and find billions of pounds ... to protect other vital services.’ The DfT said the Bus Services Act has given local councils more powers to work with bus firms to improve services, adding: ‘We spend around £250million to support bus services every year.’

WHAT a week of intrigue and animosity this has been at Westminster, with Cabinet divisions over Brexit bursting into the open, threats of resignation hinted at and withdrawn, and accusations of betrayal flying right, left and centre.

According to the normal rules of politics, a governing party beset by such infighting should be languishing in the polls, with the Opposition riding high.

But no. In a remarkable finding, a YouGov survey sees the Tories extending their lead, with a seven-point advantage – the biggest since the election 12 months ago.

Meanwhile, 37 per cent say Theresa May is best fitted to be prime minister, while only 24 per cent back Jeremy Corbyn – down seven points since January.

In the world beyond the hysterical Westminster bubble, voters trust Mrs May and sympathise with her as she battles to push the Brexit legislation through a Parliament stuffed with saboteurs.

At the same time, the more they see of Mr Corbyn, spouting his Marxist drivel and plotting to undermine our negotiators in Brussels, the less they like him. (And how significant that the biggest swing away from Labour has been among the workingclass voters his party has relied on).

Could there be any more eloquent rebuke to Mrs May’s critics than the public’s confidence in her? And could there be any clearer warning to Tory rebels who threaten to humiliate her – and 17.4million Leave voters – by supporting the Lords’ wrecking amendments to Brexit next week?

Yet though Mrs May can draw comfort from the poll, she would do well to heed Boris Johnson. He will have struck a chord with millions when he argued that our negotiators could learn a thing or two from Donald Trump in their talks with the EU.

Indeed, with 64 per cent saying the Government is handling Brexit badly, ministers need to display more courage and confidence in dealing with an obtuse and obstructive Brussels.

This country has massive leverage in the talks – as Audi’s boss confirmed this week when he said he was desperate to retain free access to the UK market for his cars.

With threats if necessary, our team must spell out that Britain simply won’t settle for being ‘locked in orbit around the EU’ (to quote Mr Johnson’s vivid phrase).

And if Eeyore Chancellor Philip Hammond can’t understand this, then he should be replaced by someone who can. THIS paper sheds no tears for BT boss Gavin Patterson, who has been given his marching orders after presiding over appalling customer service, neglecting the firm’s core business and squandering £3billion on football broadcasting rights. Let’s hope his successor will focus on dealing with complaints efficiently – and giving us internet speeds and a telecoms infrastructure fit for the 21st century. THEY’VE lost bank branches, Post Offices and cash machines. Now, just when they need them most, isolated rural communities are fast losing their bus services, with 3,000 routes scrapped in England and Wales since 2010. Thus, residents without cars are increasingly cut off from shops, schools, GPs’ surgeries and other essentials. Our small towns and villages have long been the pride of this nation. Short- sighted cost- cutting is sapping their lifeblood. It must stop. TRULY, the calibre of some of today’s MPs makes the heart sink. What was Tory Remoaner MP Antoinette Sandbach thinking of when she reported a 64-year-old to the police for accusing her of treachery after she’d backed a Labour attempt to sabotage Brexit? As it emerges that police waste thousands of hours dealing with such trivial ‘hate incidents’ – time that could be spent tackling the violent crimewave – Miss Sandbach should hang her head. If she can’t take fair criticism, robustly expressed, she’s in the wrong job.