Bus firms get £5m to keep services on for key workers

TRANSPORT bosses have fasttracked payment to Greater Manchester’s bus operators – and asked in return that they keep running routes for key workers.

Every month, Transport for Greater Manchester pays bus operators for routes which are subsidised because they aren’t commercially viable, as well as reimbursing them for concessionary pass holders.

Usually these payments are made mid-way through the month, but in April the transfer has taken place early as bus firms struggle with passenger losses of up to 85 per cent as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Despite this plummeting patronage and slashed timetables, firms received £5.6m – around 85pc of their usual subsidy – in a bid to help them through this unprecedented period of uncertainty.

TfGM have also given firms a three-month rent free period for those using their sites.

And in return, transport bosses are asking bus operators to make sure key workers like health and care workers, as well as other vital people like supermarket staff, are able to continue their daily commutes to sites including hospitals.

At the weekly press conference which focuses on Greater Manchester’s response to the crisis, mayor Andy Burnham said: “I know there is concern in the bus industry around pressure on budgets at this particular time.

“TfGM has made arrangements to pay bus companies today a significant part of what they were due in

April, having already paid them in full in March.

“We are doing everything we can to pay bus companies at this time.”

But he said they wanted, in exchange, a discussion with the firms to make sure they were serving key sites - including hospitals.

He added: “We want an open book approach to ensure public funds are being properly used.”

It’s estimated that buses and trains are seeing just 15 per cent of previous passenger levels, while Metrolink is carrying around 10pc of its pre-coronavirus numbers.

Meanwhile, transport secretary Grant Shapps is understood to be drawing up a plan to help bus operators weather the coronavirus storm.

A TfGM spokeswoman said April’s payment was in line with other government interventions and support mechanisms being developed.

She said they were working with the Department for Transport and the Urban Transport Group on a national response for longer-term funding.

She added: “Our first priority – and that of partners across the transport industry – is to keep a core transport network running for key workers and those people who need to make absolutely essential journeys. We are aware that nationally and locally, operators are facing significant challenges around staff availability, funding and patronage.

“We have ensured that operators have been paid early for this month to ensure core services can continue to operate and we can provide some certainty for those who have to use them at this most challenging time.”