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Metro mayor, Dan Norris, criticised amid bus 'challenges'

BBC Bus in BristolBBC
Mr Norris said bus operators were facing a "financial cliff edge"

A metro mayor has been accused of giving bus passengers an impossible choice between reducing frequency or reliability.

Campaigners criticised the West of England metro mayor, Dan Norris, after public meetings were held to debate ways to save bus routes in the region.

First Bus has warned of more cuts in October when government funding ends.

Mr Norris acknowledged that there are "huge challenges on the buses at the moment".

"Government Covid funding ends in October so there is a financial cliff-edge and with more home working and internet shopping fewer journeys are being made than pre-pandemic so less money is coming in from fares," he said, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"But even if I had all the money in the world, and regardless of if buses are run by commercial companies or not for profit, there's another problem, and that is a serious nationwide shortage of bus drivers."

According to Mr Norris, the Big Choices on Buses meetings, which took place from Monday 1 August to Thursday 4 August, were "packed" with open-minded people who were "willing to compromise and consider radical alternatives".

LDRS Dan Norris speaking to a group of people at a public meetingLDRS
Mr Norris said: “It’s only right that I let as many people as possible know about these issues."

The pressure group, West of England Shared Transport and Active Travel Network (WESTACT), said the meetings highlighted that the privately-operated bus system is "completely broken".

One WESTACT member, Emilia Melville, said: "It is like being on the Titanic and being asked to choose between steering further toward the iceberg or making the hole in the hull bigger.

"At a time when we urgently need to get cars off the road, having a conversation about cutting the bus routes that people rely on to get from villages five miles from Bristol into Bristol city centre is farcical and tragic," she added.

Mr Norris previously said there would be short-term pain for some passengers, but the situation would improve when government funding becomes available for the West of England Combined Authority to use on buses.

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