The 18 bus services due to be axed across Bristol region

Eighteen bus services in the Bristol region are set to be axed from October, West of England mayor Dan Norris has revealed.

The long-feared announcement of which buses will be cut is expected officially next week following a major network review over the summer, but the metro mayor has now named the 11 commercial and seven subsidised routes which he says will be scrapped.

Norris heads the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), which is in charge of the region’s strategic transport. He says they “threw the kitchen sink at it but ultimately we need more bus drivers”.

The commercial services proposed to be cut are:

• No 5 Downend to Bristol
• No 22 University of Bath to Twerton
• No 41 Lawrence Hill to Bristol
• No 42 Odd Down park and ride to Bath’s Royal United Hospital
• No 72/72A Temple Meads to UWE Frenchay
• No 171/172 Paulton to Bath
• X2 Bristol to Yatton
• X5 (in part) Bristol to Weston via Portishead
• Y3 Yate to Bristol
• Y4 Yate to Bristol
• Y5 Chipping Sodbury to Bristol

The subsidised, or “supported”, buses set for the chop or changes are:

• No 11 Bathampton to Bath
• No 12 Haycombe Cemetery to Bath
• No 20 University of Bath to Twerton
• No 36 Bristol to St Annes, which will be extended to Brislington but with the loss of Wick Road
• No 82 Paulton to Radstock (Tyning)
• No 96 Hengrove to Brislington
• No 178 Radstock to Bristol

Dan Norris admits the cuts will be “disheartening and worrying for local people” – photo: WECA

Norris says there will be a new No 47 covering Yate, Bristol and Downend and a new 379 serving Paulton, Bath, Midsomer Norton, Radstock and Bristol.

The cuts, which are largely the result of a national bus driver shortage, come into force from October 9.

A First Bus spokesperson said it could not confirm the services being cancelled yet because a statutory four-week consultation period on the proposals ends this week, followed by the submission of final timetables to the Traffic Commissioner by this weekend.

They said the operator would confirm all the changes by the end of next week (Friday, September 2).

The Labour metro mayor said: “These cuts will be disheartening and worrying for local people. The problem of too few drivers to staff our region’s vital bus services has gone off the Richter scale.

“We are also living in unprecedented times with annual inflation in the bus industry letting rip at over 40 per cent.

“These two major challenges have come together to create the perfect storm to see commercial bus providers up and down the land cutting back on the services they provide.

“Even where financial support has been made available by the West of England Combined Authority or the Government to keep local buses going, operators are still unwilling to run these services as they simply don’t have the drivers to operate them.

“These cuts will cause real difficulty for many local people and communities right across our region.”

He said he hoped for better news soon on fares and an improved timetable when government funding from the Bus Service Improvement Plan kicked in next April.

WECA is looking to use “more cost-effective minibuses in future over more traditional buses where this is appropriate”.

South Gloucestershire Council cabinet member for transport, Conservative Steve Reade said: “It is frustrating yet again to see the WECA mayor refusing to fight for vital bus services and again rolling over and ridding our communities of public transport.

“Until now, his insistence on scrapping buses left, right and centre has been exclusively down to a perceived lack of funding despite the millions of pounds in new funding for buses that WECA continues to receive from government.

“Now he can no longer hide behind that excuse.”

Reade said Norris’s recent Big Choices on Buses public meetings were “nothing more than a publicity stunt with no involvement from WECA transport officers”.

He said: “This engagement also came far too late with no clear way in which it could play a significant role into the network review process being carried out by WECA officers.

“These cuts have demonstrated this process was nothing more than a waste of time.”

A First West of England spokesperson said: “As a condition of transitional funding arrangements, bus operators had to undertake full network reviews to assess the viability of all routes in light of changes to travel patterns and bus use post-pandemic.

“We appreciate that any changes to services can be concerning and that our customers are understandably keen to learn the details. However, we are committed to providing a full and accurate picture of all the changes once the consultation period has ended.

“Like all other bus operators in the UK, we have worked closely with our local authority partners to adapt our services so they are sustainable in the long term.

“The majority of our networks will be retained, and we will work to match our resources with demand for services in order to provide the majority of our customers with the most reliable network.”

The spokesperson added: “This reset comes at the same time as ongoing labour market challenges in the bus industry, which are particularly acute in the West of England and have caused unprecedented driver shortages.

“We will be in a position to announce finalised changes for our customers by the end of next week.”

Adam Postans is a local democracy reporter for Bristol 

Main photo: Google

Read more: Lifeline community bus services suddenly axed

Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast: