WARNING BUS SERVICES COULD BE CUT
WARNING BUS SERVICES COULD BE CUT
Posted: March 15, 2012
The leader of Cumbria County Council is warning that there could be cutbacks to rural bus services this year as a result of a reduction In government funding.
Eddie Martin is now calling on MPs John Woodcock and Tim Farron to help commercial operators maintain services.
From next month grants are being reduced by 20% – funding for concessionary fares has already been cut – leaving a shortfall of around a million pounds.
Cllr Martin says: “Bus operators need to be more competitive than ever to survive but I am concerned that the level of Government cuts has been so deep that we risk seeing services falling like skittles this year.
‘It is rural areas where there are fewer passengers that are most at risk. The county council already subsidises bus services and has maintained its level of funding support this year, despite having to make millions of pounds of cuts across the board.’
‘We’re doing what we can, but it’s a simple fact that more money needs to be channelled nationally into supporting bus services in rural areas if Britain wants to be a place where you can catch a bus in the countryside or at non-peak times,”
