Bus passengers down by 1.7 million in Staffordshire

The latest Department for Transport data shows there were 16.6 million bus passenger journeys in the county between April 2017 and March 2018, 1.7 million fewer than in the previous year.

A decade ago there were almost 23 million bus passenger journeys in a year.

In Staffordshire, central and local government spent £2.6m on local bus services during the 12 months to March 2018 – a 27 per cent decrease in eight years.

Campaigners have put the trend down to local authority budget cuts – and that councils are failing to pay to plug gaps in services.

They say this is especially the case in rural areas such as Staffordshire, where running a route is less lucrative for companies.

Nearly half of all bus routes in England receive partial or complete subsidies from councils.

The Local Government Association has warned these services are at risk unless councils are given more funding.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “Buses are vital for connecting people, homes and businesses, which is why we help subsidise costs by around £250 million every year and support local authority spending.

“Local authorities spend a further £1 billion on the free bus pass scheme, benefitting older and disabled people across the country.

“We have also recently published our plans to make bus travel more convenient for passengers by ensuring better access to real-time information on fares, routes and services.”

Across England, local bus passenger journeys decreased by two per cent from 2016-17 to 2017-18, to 4.36 billion journeys.

In Staffordshire, 42 per cent of the local bus passengers journeys were taken by elderly or disabled people with some kind of discount in 2017-18.

The Labour Party has pledged to spend £1.3bn a year expanding bus services.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said bus services are a "lifeline" for many people.

Mr Corbyn said: "Cuts to services in the past decade have had disastrous consequences for our towns and city centres and for air pollution and the environment.

"What we're doing is trying to help the whole community by ensuring there's good public transport. We've moved on a bit since Margaret Thatcher once said anyone on a bus over the age of 25 is a failure."