Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council writes to Transport Minister condemning Stagecoach withdrawal of bus services

The leader of Cambridgeshire County Council has written a letter to the Minister of State for Transport, Lucy Frazer MP, condemning the decision by Stagecoach to withdraw bus services in our region.

Councillor Lucy Nethsingha, who is deputy mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), has been quick to praise the action taken by Metro Mayor, Nik Johnson who has pledged an additional £1.7 million to secure threatened routes.

That money will cover the mostly rural bus services, although some in Peterborough have been affected, from the end of October 2022 through until the end of March 2023.

Councillor Nethsingha, who chairs the CPCA Strategy and Resources Committee, has said she feels only through direct communication with the Minister can the proposal by Stagecoach to axe more than 30 services across the county, be properly condemned.

She has written: “The way in which Stagecoach have treated people in our area is horrendous, and so I have written to the Minister for Transport, Lucy Frazer MP, to let her know what this means for the people of Cambridgeshire.

“I think one of the key things for me which has been so offensive, is the really short space of time between Stagecoach announcing their proposal, and the withdrawal of the services, which hasn’t given anybody affected any time to figure out how they are going to get their kids to school or how they are going to get to work – the timescales are just incredibly short.

“Had Stagecoach, for example, withdrawn those routes when everybody was away during the summer holidays, only for them to come back to school and to work in September and find out they were no longer there – it is just a nightmare.”

Metro Mayor Johnson, and his predecessor James Palmer, were both very accommodating to Stagecoach and its shareholders when they found themselves in difficult financial circumstances during the COVID pandemic, using large amounts of public money to sure-up Stagecoaches’ bus routes.

Cllr Nethsingha added: “This feels like a slap in the face from Stagecoach and the thing that I find most angering about the most recent announcement is that this money [the COVID grant] was due to be withdrawn earlier in the year by the government; but they then stepped in and said they would continue to pay it, and still Stagecoach withdrew the services anyway. That’s just outrageous.

“I do think that the government have been somewhat naive and incompetent in allowing that to happen, and it has been a failing on their part in terms of the way that the bus grant money was handed over.”

Cllr Nethsinghas’ message to the rural bus users of Cambridgeshire: “We will do everything that we can to not only preserve, but improve bus services over time; and I hope very much that Mayor Johnson, in putting these routes out to tender so quickly, will allow them to continue.

“Longer term, we really need a bus network for the people who rely and depend on it, and not just for Stagecoach and its shareholders.”

Darren Roe, Managing Director or Stagecoach East said: “We care about our customers and sympathise with those people who will be impacted by the changes ahead. Unfortunately, running a traditional fixed route bus service is no longer a financially viable solution for some rural areas.

“Since raising our concerns with the Combined Authority and other local authority partners in early summer, we have continued to explore different options to ensure connectivity in these communities.

“However, the reality is that Stagecoach alone cannot deliver solutions to the challenges involved or save the bus routes at risk. It needs a partnership approach involving the Combined Authority, local authorities and transport operators.

“We have left no stone unturned in trying to find a way forward in maintaining connectivity for communities.”

Cllr Nethsinghas’ letter will request the Minister ask that the Government urgently review the current regulations which allow bus companies to simply cancel routes at such short notice, and give Bus Improvement money direct to bus operators rather than the authorities who are responsible for them.

The next meeting of the Cambridgeshire County Council Strategy and Resources Committee is on 20 October 2022.