Fears over future for funding of South Gloucestershire bus used by schoolchildren
The 918 bus runs between Thornbury and Severn Beach
The future of a South Gloucestershire bus service used by lots of schoolchildren is once again in doubt.
Teenagers and parents called for council bosses to save the 918 bus, without which they would struggle to get to school. And in the new year some funding could finally be found.
The 918 bus runs between Thornbury and Severn Beach, with many children in villages living in between relying on the service to get to the Castle School. The service previously came under threat and was due to be cancelled in July last year, until South Gloucestershire Council agreed to spend £240,000 of its reserves to keep the service running for another academic year.
Rising costs of fuel and driver salaries mean that keeping buses running is increasingly expensive. But pupils at Castle School and parents urged councillors that they should keep supporting the service, during a full council meeting on Wednesday, December 17.
One teenager, in Year 11, said: “I’ve been travelling on the bus every day for five years. When my sister started at Castle a few years before me, she had a choice of buses. Since Covid, there’s only been the 918 but there are just as many children needing the bus. My parents work and can’t get to school at the right times every day.
“Without the bus I would have to wait in Thornbury for one or two hours at a time. Next year I want to go to sixth form and take my A levels so I can study to become an architect. Without the 918 there are no sixth forms that I or my friends can reach independently. We can’t walk or cycle because it’s too far and the roads are too dangerous.”
Several bus routes in the region are publicly funded. These are known as “supported services”, and are unprofitable but nonetheless important for local communities. At the moment, bus services are largely unregulated but campaigners have been pushing for a franchising model, used in London and Manchester, where profitable routes help keep unprofitable ones going.
Another teenager added: “It’s how I get to school safely and on time, and without worrying my parents every morning. If this bus is stopped, I’ll have no safe way to get to school. I live too far away to walk and Thornbury Hill is too dangerous to walk down. The T1 is not a good alternative, because it’s full by the time it gets to my village and goes past without stopping.
“This bus helps me to be independent, punctual and ready to learn. Without it, I would be stressed, tired and more likely to miss school, which would affect my education and future. Please think about how this decision affects real children like me, not just numbers on paper.”
Earlier in December the government announced £42.4 million would be spent on funding buses in the West of England over the next three years starting from April. This will help pay for bus services which don’t make a profit for operators like First or Stagecoach. But the three local councils in the region also must pay some money to the West of England Combined Authority.
According to Liberal Democrat Councillor Chris Willmore, cabinet member for planning, regeneration and infrastructure, the new government settlement is better than expected. And since the Liberal Democrats and Labour took over the council in 2023, they have worked to find the cash to get some scrapped bus services back and keep others running.
She said: “I hope people feel that in the last two and a half years, as an administration we have gone up hill and down dale and explored every option to find money down the back of settees, to persuade WECA and to do all sorts of things — to get the Y8 back, to get the Y2C back, to keep the 918.
“It’s been a huge task and we’re not going to stop fighting. We’ve got the new government settlement which is slightly better than we had feared. Our difficulty is at the minute that we don’t know the small print yet. We know the headline numbers, but not the smallprint.
“WECA can’t actually finalise which services it might be able to run and with which frequency, and then go out to tender, until actually it’s got some of the smallprint questions answered. That’s going to happen at some point in early January, which is creating a very tight timetable around the registration of services.”