Passengers and MP fear number’s up for the 62...
EAST Runcorn’s public transport woes have prompted another intervention from the area’s MP.
Mike Amesbury, Labour MP for Weaver Vale, has specifically raised the issue of the number 62 bus, which serves Moore village, Sandymoor, Murdishaw and Halton Lea, or does when it’s running.
Mr Amesbury said he wrote to Warrington Borough Council chiefs last September over cuts to the 62 and received a response that driver shortages were to blame but that the service would “step up” once the situation stabilised.
He said he has now received fresh complaints from passengers who said there was no 62 service at all between December 23 and January 4 and that the Saturday service remains infrequent.
Students attending Priestley College rely on the bus.
A spokesman for Mr Amesbury said the councilowned bus company told him the route is on a reduced service and patronage is low, with no way to boost frequency without further Government funding.
Although there is some funding “for now”, it was “nowhere near enough to cover costs as it was”.
Mr Amesbury, who raised the issue in Parliament, said: “The future of the number 62 service is a big concern to me.
“We have had a general fall in bus passenger numbers due to Covid and the financial support package from Government just isn’t there.
“The PM promised £3bn of ‘new funding to level up buses across England towards London standards’ as part of the government’s ‘bus back better’ strategy which then shrunk to less than half at £1.4bn.
“We seem to be left with ‘bus back worse’!”
The Labour MP pinned much of the blame for the UK’s public transport “woes” at the door of “Tory deregulation”.
He said he welcomed the aim of Liverpool and Manchester’s metro mayors to create deliver London-style integrated transport systems make travel more quick, cheap and reliable.