Driver shortages First Bus cancels 1,450 trips a week

BRISTOL’S biggest bus company First Bus West of England has announced the temporary cancellation of 1,450 bus journeys a week, because it doesn’t have enough drivers to meet its own timetables. Bosses at First said that while it is describing the cancellations as ‘temporary,’ they will be in place at least until next April.

First said the temporary cancellations will be listed on its app and on the real time information screens at bus stops. The company has listed all the cancelled services on its website, which separates out services in both directions and also separates out the timetabled routes during the Monday to Friday week, as well as Saturday and Sunday’s different timetables. First has listed 586 bus services that won’t be running for the foreseeable future. But because 216 of those are Monday to Friday services and therefore will be cancelled every day of the five weekdays, the total number of cancelled services announced is 1,450 across Bristol every seven days.

The worst hit bus corridor is the one from north east Bristol into the city centre. The Number 48, 48a and 49 buses, which link Emersons Green, UWE and Lyde Green, are losing a total of 174 services, while the 75 and 76 services from Hengrove through Hartcliffe and Bedminster to Cribbs Causeway are also badly affected – some 99 services are being cancelled.

A spokesperson for First Bus said: “Due to driver shortages, which are making it difficult to operate all journeys in our timetables, we have removed some journeys across several services. We are doing our utmost to address the driver shortage but doing so will take some time. As a result, we expect these cancellations to remain until at least the next major change to timetables on Sunday, April 2, which is a date agreed between all operators and the West of England Combined Authority. We regret having to do this but by giving customers advance notice we want to make it easier for travel plans to be adjusted. Cancelling these journeys in advance also enables our operations teams to focus on delivering a more reliable service for our customers.

“We would like to thank customers for their patience as we manage this difficult situation,” they added.

The following list shows the number of each bus service affected, and the number of buses cancelled. The figure combines Monday to Friday services as one bus journey, and Saturday and Sunday timetabled services as another bus journey.

» No 1 Broomhill to Cribbs: 41 bus services cancelled

» No 2 Stockwood to Cribbs: 4 cancellations

» No 3 Centre to Cribbs: 3 cancellations

» No 4 Centre to Cribbs: 6 cancellations

» No 8 Clifton to Temple Meads: 6 cancellations

» No 24 Southmead Hospital to Ashton Gate: 34 cancellations

» No 42 Cherry Gardens to Centre: 9 cancellations

» No 43 Cadbury Heath/Kingswood to Centre: 44 cancellations

» No 48 Emerson Green to Centre: 50 cancellations

» No 48a UWE to Centre: 69 cancellations

» No 49 Lyde Green to Centre: 55 cancellations

» No 70 UWE to Temple Meads: 46 cancellations

» No 73 Temple Meads to Cribbs: 37 cancellations

» No 74 Cribbs to Centre: 57 cancellations

» No 75 Cribbs to Hengrove: 64 cancellations

» No 76 Cribbs To Hengrove: 35 cancellations

» No 90 Hengrove to Cabot Circus: 18 cancellations

» No 91 Imperial Park to City Centre: 2 cancellations

» No 92 Hengrove to Centre: 6 cancellations

Some services on the 75 route have been cancelled