Bristol bus boss makes axe warning after funding cuts

First Bus is the biggest provider of bus services in Bristol

The boss of Bristol's biggest bus firm has warned services will be cut this autumn due to funding.

First Bus's manager, Doug Claringbold, has also apologised for "unacceptable" numbers of bus cancellations.

He told a South Gloucestershire Council meeting the cancellations were largely driven by a shortage of trained bus drivers.

He added many staff had been lured by the doubling of wages in the HGV sector while others had returned to Europe.

West of England Labour mayor Dan Norris said there will be a bus review over the summer that will look at commercial services and supported services as funding will end in the autumn "quite abruptly".

Significant funding gap

Mr Claringbold said passengers needed to know buses would turn up and that any new timetables had to have reliable services, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

He added: "About 95% of our passengers are travelling again but they are not travelling as much.

"The serial commuters who were travelling five to six days a week are travelling two or three days."

Changes are being driven by a significant gap between the money provided by Whitehall, which stops after September, to run 85 to 90% of the pre-covid network mileage.

The number of customers now using buses, which has only recovered to 75% of levels before the pandemic, meaning many routes made financial losses.