Students’ anger at raft of bus cuts

STUDENTS at the University of the West of England have reacted with fury to the announcement that 1,450 buses a week had been cancelled by First Bus – saying the bus company had ‘literally cut off access to work and study for thousands of our staff and students.’

Student leader Rania Regaieg said the move by First Bus was ‘absolutely disastrous,’ and would make it ‘virtually impossible’ for many students to access their campuses dotted around the city.

Ms Regaieg, the president and chair of the board of trustees at UWE’s Student Union, spoke out after First Bus announced a raft of bus cancellations because of a shortage of drivers. The bus routes worst affected were the 48, 48a and 49 which serve UWE’s Frenchay and Glenside campus in north east Bristol, with hundreds of individual bus journeys cancelled by First until at least April 2023.

“This is absolutely disastrous,” said Ms Regaieg, who is also a student governor at UWE, in a message to First on Twitter.

“A lot of us do not own cars and cannot afford to take Ubers on a daily basis when we do not live within close proximity of our university. Plus, we do not wish to increase our carbon footprint and harm our planet even more.”

First Bus said it regretted making the cancellations but had no choice with a shortage of drivers that Mayor Marvin Rees said last week was as big as 200.