Almost one in 10 local bus services axed over last year in Great Britain

Almost one in 10 local bus services were axed in Great Britain in the last year despite government promises to improve local transport connectivity being a key pillar of its levelling up agenda.

The reductions equivalent to more than 1,000 registered routes follow the publication of a national bus strategy for England in 2021, aimed at improving routes and service frequencies. The figures suggest the bus back better strategy, conceived under the then prime minister Boris Johnson, has failed to halt the decline in local bus services.

A Guardian analysis of data from the Traffic Commissioners the body responsible for registration of local bus services found the number of live registered services fell 9.5% between January 2022 and 2023.

People in communities such as Sheffield, Bath, Lincoln or Stoke-on-Trent, among many others, told the Guardian how axed, unreliable or infrequently serviced bus routes had forced them to abandon medical appointments, house purchases or going to work.

A local bus service used to regularly take Rosa Kell, a disabled pensioner, from the village of Wells in Somerset to Weston-super-Mare, where she would go shopping, meet a friend or visit her dentist.