18 per cent fewer bus routes in county areas

One in five bus routes serving residents in a rural area have disappeared over the last five years, according to figures compiled by the County Councils Network (CCN), making it the biggest decline in England. The 18 per cent of bus routes in county areas that have vanished equates to 70 fewer miles in county areas now being driven compared to 2019.

This is despite several attempts to address dwindling bus services outside of London, which started with 2021’s National Bus Strategy. Over five rounds of funding, county and rural councils have received just £31 per person to boost bus services, which lies in comparison to the £58 per person councils or combined authorities operating in England’s large cities and towns receive. The total £2.1 billion that has gone towards bus improvement services since 2019 seems to have only produced positive outcomes for cities and towns.

There is huge disparity between funds received, with Portsmouth City Council having received £252 per person for bus improvements, while Hampshire County Council receiving £14 per head. Stoke-on-Trent received £157 per head, but its county neighbour, Staffordshire county Council, received just £20 per person.

Since 2019, there are a 100 million less journeys in county and rural areas, which is a fall of 16 per cent, although there is demand for better buses in county areas. But journeys have increased by 32 per cent, 211 million journeys, in county areas, since funding started being distributed in 2022. This is the highest increase in England, which shows that investment county and unitary councils is working.

Rural bus routes have been in steady decline since the early 2010s, with a CCN report in 2023 finding that passenger numbers had dropped to a ‘historic low’ by 2022, with almost 350 million journeys less than in 2010. This decline was the steepest in England and those 37 county and unitary councils request £3.1 billion in total funding for the first round of the Bus Service Improvement Grand, yet only ten per cent of funds were distributed to those areas even though these areas represented over half (54 per cent) of the country’s population outside of London.

The CCN, ahead of the upcoming Spending Review, are calling on the the government to prioritise funding buses in county and rural areas in future rounds of funding, which will both boost local county economies and bring flagging bus services up to the level of those in major cities.

Councillor Peter Thornton, transport spokesperson for the County Councils Network said: “We are now three years on since substantial amounts of funding started being distributed across England as part of the National Bus Strategy, and whilst county and unitary councils have spent wisely on improving services, they have been swimming against the tide with too much money going to urban and city areas where services are more frequent and modern.

“For the county areas that have seen half the money than the large towns and cities have revealed, or as much as eight times less in some instances, bus routes are down a fifth on pre-pandemic levels and this decline has not halted since money first started being distributed in 2022.

“Yet there is a clear demand for county buses, and for many rural areas and smaller towns, they are a lifeline rather than a luxury. Reforms such as integrated transport budgets and bus franchising are useful but they tinker around the edges when what is really needed is more government funding. With county and unitary councils increasingly constrained by funding pressures in care services, unless a greater proportion of funds go towards those areas for local buses, residents will continue to be let down.”