Over 1,600 bus routes could be affected by cuts this spring.
According to analysis by The Labour Party over 1,600 bus routes could be affected by cuts this spring, leaving England with fewer than 10,000 routes for the first time since the numbers were first recorded, just over 20 years ago.
With last year’s COP focusing on transport to hit global emission targets it is a huge shock to see Britain cutting bus services left, right and centre since the beginning of 2023. People shouldn’t need to have a car to be able to commute and move around, but these cuts to public transport could make this even more prominent.
Local bus services are essential for millions of people across the country and must be protected. Since 2016 public bus services have been shrinking in the UK, isolating the most vulnerable and underprivileged, this is having devastating effects on local economies and the lives of individuals, families and communities.
John Stanley, an adjunct professor of sustainable transport and social inclusion at the University of Sydney, said:You’d be hard-pressed to find a government that wouldn’t cut a bus service, let alone start a new bus service, with just eight or nine passengers an hour.
In regional towns, he estimates just six passengers per hour on a bus outweigh the cost.
Stanley’s formula calculates the societal value of any public transport trip at $22.75 for a person living in an average-income household. For a household with half the average income, the societal value of the trip roughly doubles to more than $45. For someone from a household with double the average income, the societal value of a public transport trip is just over $10.
Sometimes running a classic bus service is not feasible, too expensive, too little demand, not enough funding… This is when DRT comes into play, at weDRT we are working with local councils and authorities to fill in the gaps of classic public transport and improve social inclusion as well as decrease the reliability of single-occupancy cars. By serving multiple groups under a single DRT scheme, the cost-benefit ratio of covering large spaces with DRT coverage is certainly one for local councils to consider.
This article was originally published by WeDRT.
