Dear Mrs Wootton

Thank you for contacting the Mayor’s Office with your concerns regarding the 904 bus service and in mobilising the petition.

Mayor Johnson has stated that no single event has caused so much heartache as the decision by Stagecoach to unilaterally withdraw a swathe of their country bus services and his letterbox has overflowed with the outrage people feel at the situation.

The situation is this – there are two types of bus service – subsidised routes and commercial routes. The 904 was a commercial service, paying its way from the fares it collected along the route. Whilst the Combined Authority is able to make sweeping changes to subsidised bus routes, we as the transport authority can do nothing to control or alter a commercial bus service under the 1985 Transport Act.

When we first heard from Stagecoach about their proposals they were absolutely clear that the 904 would be removed in its entirety and we prepared tendering documents to go out to the other bus operators in the area. However the Stagecoach management then changed their minds and told us they were going to continue the 904 and operate it commercially – that is, without subsidy – at a reduced frequency.

Whilst we were partially pleased that Stagecoach at least reinstated the service we are not at all happy about the new 90-minute frequency they have devised. As you know, it introduces large gaps in their services and makes the bus times unmemorable – and the new bus times have tended to not fit with school times either. In consequence we have made strong representations to Stagecoach to reinstate the hourly frequency, representations they have rejected. Yet because the 904 is a commercial service we cannot amend it, nor run extra buses of our own to improve the frequency.

We are very frustrated by this as you can imagine and, looking to the long term, we are actively seeking ways around this unhelpful regulatory regime where the bus operators can run what they want, when they want, ignoring the needs and wishes of the passengers.

However, here and now, there is very little we can do to ease the problems which Stagecoach has caused. Our Officers continue to engage with Stagecoach’s management but we would be misleading you if we said there was any early chance of them increasing the bus frequency on the 904 and for this we can only apologise – the regulatory powers to sort the matter out are not yet in place but we continue to strive to find a way around the situation.

As Deputy Mayor, I am particularly keen to be kept involved in these discussions and will be raising this in my regular catch-up meetings with Stagecoach.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Anna Smith

Deputy Mayor