1,450 bus journeys a week cancelled
FIRST Bus West of England has announced the temporary cancellation of 1,450 bus journeys a week because it doesn’t have enough drivers to meet its own timetables.
Bosses at First said that while it is describing the cancellations as “temporary”, they will be in place at least until next April, leading to a winter of bus cuts on some of the West’s most popular routes.
First said the temporary cancellations will be listed on its app and on the real time information screens at bus stops, after a wave of complaints about “ghost buses” that don’t turn up after being shown as arriving imminently on the various digital information platforms.
The company has listed all the cancelled bus services on its website but some routes are much more badly hit than others.
First’s list separates out services in both directions on every route, and also separates out the timetabled routes during the Monday to Friday week, as well as Saturday and Sunday’s different timetables. First has listed a total of 586 bus services that won’t be running for the foreseeable future on its website.
However, because 216 of those are Monday to Friday services and therefore will be cancelled each weekday, the total number of cancelled weekly services is 1,450.
The worst-hit bus corridor is the one from north-east Bristol into the city centre. The Number 48, 48a and 49 buses, which link Emersons Green, UWE and Lyde Green, are losing a total of 174 services, while the 75 and 76 services from Hengrove through Hartcliffe and Bedminster to Cribbs Causeway are also badly affected with some 99 services being “temporarily cancelled” there.
A spokesperson for First Bus said: “Due to ongoing driver shortages, which are making it difficult to operate all journeys in our current timetables, we have removed some journeys across several services.
“We are doing our utmost to address the driver shortage but doing so will inevitably take some time.”