Plans to cut bus routes could hit 500,000 journeys

STAGECOACH West’s plans to cut bus routes in Gloucestershire could affect up to 500,000 bus journeys a year.

Gloucestershire County Council chiefs say they have been “landed with a very serious problem” by the bus company which is planning to cut some of its routes from mid-november.

Stagecoach says the move comes due to the national shortage of drivers and they are understood to be cutting back on rural routes to shore up their urban bus services.

Education, skills and bus transport cabinet member Philip Robinson (C, Mitcheldean) said the decision came as a shock and explained that Stagecoach had wanted to implement the changes as soon as October.

“We have been landed in a very difficult situation because Stagecoach has put its commercial interest before that of some of our most disadvantaged and isolated communities in Gloucestershire,” Councillor Robinson said.

“At the very least we are talking about a quarter of a million journeys every year in Gloucestershire that Stagecoach has pulled that we are going to have to find a solution for.

“It is very likely that figure will be more than 300,000 journeys and in the worst case scenario it could be pushing half a million journeys. Each one of those is a person getting on a bus once.”

The affected routes have not been revealed yet but Councillor Robinson says the council is assessing the data and working to find solutions.

“The reason we’ve had to have this battle with Stagecoach is we can’t stop them pulling out of those routes but we can buy us that time to work on finding the solutions,” he said.

“We can’t promise that we will find a solution to every problem that has landed at our door. But what’s important is the willingness to succeed. Some of the communities that will lose the buses are some of the most disadvantaged in Gloucestershire. Especially in those areas where there is some isolation due to their rurality.”

Stagecoach managing director Rachel Geliamassi said the national shortage in bus drivers is behind their decision. She said people are at the heart of their business but they are struggling with staff levels due to the pandemic and a tough jobs market.

“To balance our network to our current resource, we have provided Gloucestershire County Council with a package of changes to update our network.

“These changes are designed to ensure we can deliver services consistently, day in day out, for our customers.

“As part of these changes, we have given notice to Gloucestershire County Council that we will no longer be able to run a small number of tendered services.

“We have provided formal notification which will allow Gloucestershire County Council to start a formal tender process to find alternative providers.

“Whilst this was a difficult decision, our priority is to ensure that we can successfully deliver on services that are used by the majority of our customers.”

The council has written to the Traffic Commissioner about the “poor service” provided by Stagecoach.

These changes are designed to ensure we can deliver services consistently, day in day out, for our customers

Rachel Geliamassi