Ten days before dozens of bus services face axe in South Yorkshire warns Sheffield MP

Louise Haigh, MP for Sheffield Heeley and shadow secretary for transport, said bus companies could cut 24 per cent of services (47 services in total) across the county as they face a funding shortfall.

The government’s bus recovery grant, introduced to keep services running as passengers slowly returned following Covid-19, is set to expire at the end of March following an emergency £130 million six-month extension which prevented a similar financial cliff edge.

Operators are required to give six-weeks’ notice of plans to cancel or change routes, which leaves just 10 days before services could be slashed.

Ms Haigh said: “The Conservatives are asleep at the wheel, risking the future of services millions of passengers depend on. They have ten days to act, or services could plunge to a record low.

“After 13 years of the Conservatives, the bus services communities depend on are stumbling from one crisis to the next.

“Labour will reform the broken bus system, giving communities control of their own bus routes and fares and delivering the better bus services that passengers need.”

Labour said in the last year, more than 1,100 routes were cut nationally despite the Tories promising that bus services would be so frequent “you wouldn’t need a timetable” and to not only halt the decline but reverse it.

Jonathan Bray, director of the Urban Transport Group, said: “The future of bus services in England hangs in the balance. Government has provided welcome financial support for the bus, but – with passenger numbers still well below pre-pandemic levels – we urgently need a decision to continue funding otherwise many services will disappear overnight.”

A Conservative party spokeswoman said the government was doing all it could to support buses.

She said: “We’ve been driving the bus sector forward with £2 billion in support and invested £60 million to cap single tickets at £2, helping to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and maintain services. All Labour are offering is yet another unfunded spending commitment on top of the £45 billion of unfunded spending they’ve already announced this year.

“When will they learn that spending needs to be paid for, and not just put on the national credit card?”