Bristol mayor Marvin Rees plans to boost bus travel

Elected mayor Marvin Rees said 70% of bus journeys were now paid for on "smart" or contactless methods

Plans to double the frequency of buses on main routes and passenger numbers have been announced by Bristol's mayor.

Marvin Rees wants a city-wide flat bus fare so people travelling from "less affluent parts" are not penalised.

He said he was looking towards a "long term and sustained public and private investment in the bus network".

But Steve Melia, a senior university lecturer in transport and planning, said it will not will not make "any substantial difference" to congestion.

During his speech made at the University of Bristol, Mr Rees said he would also target bus lane enforcement, extend services in less well-served areas, and use new technology to display when buses were late.

'Equality'

"Because of Bristol's geography, the less affluent parts of the city currently pay more than the wealthier areas to travel to and from the city centre.

"FirstBus and ourselves have agreed that we will work towards a standard fare across the city, bringing equality to bus travel," the mayor said.

Mr Melia, from the University of the West of England, said "one of biggest problems for buses in Bristol is the road congestion" and putting more buses on the roads would not make "any substantial difference to traffic".

"There are more people wanting to drive than there is available space on the roads so even if you were to switch a big number of drivers on to buses that would still leave road space for other drivers to take their place," he said.

"So you cannot solve congestion just by increasing public transport."

Bristol has been beset with a series of "shocking" bus problems including delays, cancellations and overcrowding caused by a shortage of drivers with operator First Bus drafting in drivers from other area.

The problems were expected continue for several more weeks, the company admitted.