"More than 3,000 local bus routes have been lost or reduced over the past decade"

Media articles about money-saving topics
Richard Frost
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"More than 3,000 local bus routes have been lost or reduced over the past decade"

Post by Richard Frost » Sun Oct 27 2019 9:58am

More than 3,000 local bus routes have been lost or reduced over the past decade, according to a new study.
Story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50166423
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Re: "More than 3,000 local bus routes have been lost or reduced over the past decade"

Post by blythburgh » Sun Oct 27 2019 10:29am

Not good news for the poorest, those in the countryside and the environment

Nor those pensioners who are very well heeled but chose to use the bus pass to save some pennies (I have in laws like that :lol: )
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Re: "More than 3,000 local bus routes have been lost or reduced over the past decade"

Post by pabenny » Sun Oct 27 2019 1:45pm

Is 3,000 a lot? How many 'local bus routes' (whatever that means) are there? Are these urban or rural routes? How many people were using these services?

Not much information about whether this is a significant is contained within the news story - instead we have winging about cuts in funding and a single example.

The headline invites us to form a particular view - as Mrs Blythburgh has duly done - which may or may not be supported by the bigger picture. And the story doesn't actually help us understand whether these 3,000 are significant.

This is where fake news has its roots: news stories that are factually accurate but give an impression which may not be a fair reflection of reality.
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Re: "More than 3,000 local bus routes have been lost or reduced over the past decade"

Post by expressman33 » Sun Oct 27 2019 2:13pm

Looking at the graph ,from 1970 to 1990 the number of passenger journeys fell by about 50%, but since then they have actually increased slightly. Although the number of journeys has dropped by about 6% in the last decade this could be due to the rising age to qualify for a free bus pass
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Re: "More than 3,000 local bus routes have been lost or reduced over the past decade"

Post by blythburgh » Mon Oct 28 2019 9:37am

I know bus routes that people I know would like to use have been dropped in the town. E.g. A friend lives no more than 1 to 2 miles from a retail park and area with Morrisons, Aldi and other shops he might want to use. He lives in an area with a fair few retired people and very close to a large council estate. There used to be buses that take you to the Morrisons area and into town. He does not have a car, he has had some heart attacks so walking even one way without shopping is too much for him. A lot of people on the council estate do not have access to a car during the day if at all. My friend has a choice of going north nto town and changing buses to get to Morrisons etc so has to use Asda as that is on the only bus route he can use. There is a Tesco in the town but it is in the far north and not sure if that would need a change of buses in town centre but a long journey.

None of the buses other than one route is ideal if you are elderly, disabled or have children so limits your choices.

But I think the people out of the bigger towns are the ones hardest hit.

What we should be discussing is which bus routes should have public money to keep them going.
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