Public transport faces ‘perfect storm’ in the wake of pandemic
Public transport in the North East faces a ‘perfect storm’ as it attempts to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Servicesandoperatorshave received huge Government subsidies this year to compensate them for the loss of business caused by the outbreak and restrictions put in place to try and curb it.
But, even with vaccine rollouts beginning, travel bosses are increasingly doubtful passenger numbers will bounce back, especially with the looming prospect of an economic slump next year.
“We don’t think [the Tyne and Wear] Metro’s patronage will recover to pre-pandemic levels for a long time – if ever,” said Tobyn Hughes, managing director of Transport North East.
“We know people’s working patterns have changed, that some of those changes will be permanent and that confidence in public transport has taken a big dent.”
Mr Hughes, who is also managing director at Metro operator Nexus, was speaking at a meeting of the North East Joint Transport Committee’s Audit Committee.
Nexus is expecting a total financial deficit worth about £1.2million this year (2020/21), covered by the government’s Light Rail Revenue Restart Grant.
But even a best case scenario prepared for next year (2021/22) could see this surge to £3.7million.
And a worst case scenario, in which the operator received no more Government cash,
could be almost 10 times that, at £30.1million.
This has raised the pros
pect of money used by Nexus to support bus routes, which are also expected to struggle to return to pre-pandemic traveller numbers, in Tyne and Wear being diverted to prop up the Metro network.
Mr Hughes said: “That has a direct impact not just on Nexus,butalsoDurhamandNorthumberland, because they use secured bus service budgets to buy back bus services which could not be provided commercially.
“If there’s going to be a pressure on the bus network to shrink because there’s fewer people using it, there is a requirement from local authorities to make sure residents and businesses have the best levels of public transport accessibility they can achieve, which could put addition cost pressure on council and Nexus budgets for secured bus services. It is a potential perfect storm coming.”