Nexus announces £4.5m rescue package for bus services

Nexus today set out a £4.5m rescue package to respond to cuts made by bus companies in North East as their covid-relief funding ends.

The cuts to routes and services being made by Arriva, Go North East and Stagecoach in March 2022 would leave some communities without bus services and cut links to shops and hospitals, business parks, schools and colleges.

Nexus has, in response, drawn up a £4.5m package to replace commercial services which would otherwise be lost in Newcastle and North Tyneside, or re-cast publicly-funded routes it already provides to mitigate the worst effects of cuts set to take effect from Sunday, March 27.

But it has warned that the scale of the cuts means that, despite an increase in funding from local authorities in Tyne and Wear, it is unable to replace every route under threat.

Bus companies are expected to make further changes in other parts of North East England, including Sunderland, Gateshead and South Tyneside, later in the spring. Nexus has pledged a further rescue package if there are significant cuts to routes elsewhere in Tyne and Wear.

Commercial bus companies operate 90 per cent of bus routes in Tyne and Wear and decide where and how often these run. Nexus can provide additional services, using funding from local authorities, where there are gaps in these commercial services which would otherwise leave people without access to public transport.

The three commercial bus companies – Arriva, Go North East and Stagecoach – each recently informed Nexus of plans to reduce their services in the Newcastle and North Tyneside areas to levels they consider financially sustainable in the wake of the pandemic.

The companies will see the Government’s Bus Recovery Grant withdrawn at the end of March 2022, while passenger numbers are yet to recover from the pandemic, and currently stand at around 75 per cent of pre-covid levels.

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