Rural areas face double hit of bus fare rises and service cuts

Arriva, which operates buses across West and North Yorkshire, says fares will rise beyond inflation and many services will be cut because it is losing £14m a year in Government funding while also being hit by increasing fuel and staff costs.

Bosses also warn of further strain imposed by cuts in funding for free bus travel which they say will have an uneven impact, smaller cities and rural areas being particularly affected.

Stagecoach, which runs services in Sheffield and Hull, says a combination of fare increases and service cuts are “inevitable” and has told Ministers that the measures will prompt more people to get back into their cars.

The organisation representing transport officers at councils, the Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers, has also warned that the cuts will have an “extremely negative impact” on bus services, the impact being “especially harsh” in rural areas.

And the Passenger Transport Group, which represents transport authorities in West and South Yorkshire, raised the spectre of “dramatic consequences”, older people being left with a free pass for a “quickly vanishing network of services” while paying passengers are left with a “less extensive, more expensive, less integrated and less accessible” network.

The stark warnings were made in evidence to a Commons Select Committee yesterday at which North Yorkshire County Council denied that its plans to cut funding for evening and weekend bus services was a “knee-jerk reaction”.

The council has been left with a £5m funding black hole after the Government changed the way it funds the concessionary bus fare scheme.

The assistant director at the council, Richard Owens, said: “We started considering our decisions 12 months ago when we spotted trouble on the horizon. It wasn’t a knee-jerk decision, we gave consideration to all our options.”

The Transport Select Committee launched an inquiry into the future of bus services amid concern about the impact of the pressures on the industry.

Companies are facing cuts to the Bus Service Operators’ Grant, declining subsidies from cash-hit councils, black holes in funding for free bus passes and a mounting fuel bill. They say the total hit from grant cuts will be between £254m and £441m per year in England, excluding London.

Operators admit that raising prices will deter people from using buses but say they are left with no choice to plug the gaps. Many services have to be subsidised by the Government or councils because they are not profitable but are considered a vital lifeline, particularly in remote areas.

Speaking at yesterday’s meeting, Wakefield Council leader Peter Box said councillors who cut funding for bus services would be held accountable by voters in elections in May, but warned that other areas like social services also had to be protected.

Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith said: “I and other MPs have made representations to Government about concessionary fares and there are a set of challenging factors for bus services – rising fuel prices, concessionary fare settlements, less money to spend.

“I want to ensure I strongly represent the need to ensure that rural areas are protected as much as possible in order to maintain services.”

Local and Regional Transport Minister Norman Baker said: “Nearly 80 per cent of bus services outside London are commercially run so don’t rely on direct funding from councils. There has been no cut in the financial support we provide for these services this year.

“The Government accepts that the overall funding settlement for local authorities is challenging. It’s good to see some councils are approaching this imaginatively, finding savings in procurement and back room staff, rather than just reaching for the axe and cutting frontline services.”