Stagecoach plans to cut bus routes amid driver shortage in Gloucestershire

Stagecoach West is planning to stop some of its bus routes in Gloucestershire.

The bus company says it will be pulling out of a “small number” of tendered services in the county.

The firm has been in talks with Gloucestershire County Council, which subsidises the affected routes.

The changes are expected to come into effect in November but the company has said they cannot comment yet on which routes will be affected.

Stagecoach managing director Rachel Geliamassi said the national shortage of bus drivers is behind their decision.

She said people are at the heart of their business but they are struggling with staff levels due to the pandemic and a tough jobs market.

She added: “The continuing impact of the pandemic on sickness levels, as well as the economy-wide skills challenge is real and incredibly impactful on the day-to-day running of our business.

“This has resulted in services in Gloucestershire being cancelled at short notice in recent months.

“To try to mitigate the effects of these issues we have successfully recruited drivers and introduced measures to make us an employer of choice. However, in some areas, this is not enough to bring in additional people whilst there is still a national shortage of bus drivers.

“To balance our network to our current resource, we have provided Gloucestershire County Council with a package of changes to update our network. These changes are designed to ensure we can deliver services consistently, day in, day out, for our customers.

“As part of these changes, we have given notice to Gloucestershire County Council that we will no longer be able to run a small number of tendered services. We have provided formal notification which will allow Gloucestershire County Council to start a formal tender process to find alternative providers.

“Whilst this was a difficult decision, our priority is to ensure that we can successfully deliver on services that are used by the majority of our customers.

“We have been in discussion with Gloucestershire County Council over the last four months and had hoped to reach an agreement to make these changes sooner. As permission has not been granted, the implementation of these changes will take a little longer than we hoped."

The company says it is expecting these changes to take place from mid-November, with further information due to be released as soon as the dates have been confirmed with Gloucestershire County Council.

Bus transport cabinet member Philip Robinson said the council was very disappointed with Stagecoach’s decision to cut some bus services.

The council has written to the traffic commissioner about the “poor service” provided by Stagecoach

He said: “These cuts will affect some of the most vulnerable people in the county leaving them without basic transport services to get to work, medical appointments and generally go about their lives.

“We have written to the traffic commissioner to raise our concerns over poor service levels and the package of changes proposed by Stagecoach.

"We still hope to work with Stagecoach on finding suitable proposals for Gloucestershire.”

Credit: Local Democracy Reporter Service/Carmelo Garcia