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21

Nov 2022

Last Updated: 21/11/2022
Boroughbridge
Boroughbridge

North Yorkshire transport boss warns bus network faces ‘really grave situation’

by Stuart Minting Local Democracy Reporter

| 21 Nov, 2022
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North Yorkshire County Council’s transport boss has issued the stark warning that the county’s bus network is facing a serious funding problem.

knaresboroughbusstationsized
Knaresborough Bus Station, where the service had just departed before the alleged assault. Picture: Michael Taylor.

North Yorkshire County Council’s transport boss has issued the stark warning that the county’s bus network is “facing a really grave situation”.

Councillor Keane Duncan, executive member for highways and transportation, made his remarks after a meeting where members representing communities across North Yorkshire heard many commerically-run services were in peril or being downgraded.

Seven months ago the government rejected North Yorkshire County Council’s bid for a £116m share of Boris Johnson’s high-profile Bus Back Better initiative, saying the local authority’s plans lacked ambition.

The council has been trialling Yorbus, a demand-responsive transport scheme around Ripon and Masham in the hope of finding a sustainable public transport solution for rural areas. It is yet to announce any alternative public transport proposals to its rejected plans.

A meeting of the authority heard opposition members highlight the importance of public transport as a means of cutting carbon emissions and question the authority’s intentions over investing in the area.



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Liberal Democrat councillor for Pateley Bridge, Andrew Murday, said residents of his division faced having just two services a day to Harrogate.

He said:

“We just have to do something about bus services, and encourage more people onto buses. We need to know how we are going to go about discouraging people from driving and encouraging people on to buses, so bus services can thrive.”


The meeting heard a call from Scarborough Labour councillor Tony Randerson for a “nationalised bus service”.

Cllr Duncan responded saying bus services in the county were facing unprecedented pressure due to higher costs and passenger numbers had fallen to just 80 per cent of pre-covid levels.

He said:

“For many of the routes that represents the difference between profitability and not profitable services.
“It is important to point out that the bus network is North Yorkshire is facing a really grave situation. I think unprecedented pressure as a result of reduced passenger numbers, as a result of higher costs."


He added: “The message across the county is use it or lose it. We need people to support these services.”

He said the authority subsidised routes to the tune of £1.6m annually, but the situation in the county would “outstrip that many times over”, adding:

“That subsidy is not at a level that which we would be able to support those 79 routes, so it is a very grave situation.”


He added:

“Creating a nationalised service would not solve those fundamental issues if those operators are not there to deliver those services.”
“There may be is more that we could do to become more interventionist in terms of the bus network, but at the moment the backbone of the county’s bus service is the commercial operators.”