Bus services in Bedford are getting worse say worried passengers

Bedford borough residents are worried about bus services getting worse, a councillor has claimed.

But the portfolio holder for highways and transport says “it’s not all gloomy”.

A report presented to the Budget and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny on Thursday, October 20 said that public transport is still “significantly” affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Councillor Mohammed Nawaz (Labour, Kempston Central & East) wondered if there was a light at the end of the tunnel – and said he had received many calls from residents about bus services.

“People are in a kind of panic situation thinking what’s going to happen to bus services, are they going to get worse, are they going to get better,” he said.

The council’s portfolio holder for environment, highways and transport, councillor Charles Royden (LibDems, Brickhill) said: “I think it’s fair to say that it’s not all gloomy, because Stagecoach has actually increased some services, they’ve increased their early morning and their late evening services.

“We’ve got more services going into places like B&M and Shortstown’s gone from 30 to 15 minutes.

“And that reflects the fact that those are the routes that are getting customers, there’s an element of use it or lose it to buses.

“They are not charities these bus companies, they are publicly quoted companies.

“If they’re not making any profit then those routes are in peril,” he said.

Committee chair, councillor Stephen Moon (Conservative, Great Barford) wondered what powers the contracts give the council over punctuality, non-arrival, and short notice changes to the timetables.

Councillor Moon said: “A year or so ago I spoke to [an officer] about the 27, which lost its Saturday service more or less overnight.

“This was first discovered by people on the Saturday morning waiting at the bus stop, not ideal, do we have no powers at all,” he asked.

Matthew D’Archambaud, chief officer highways, transport and engineering, replied: “Commercial bus services, it’s very much in the name.

“If it’s run commercially it’s run at their discretion.

“We make representations and say ‘you really need to provide a better service, you really do need to provide the information’, but the only powers that we have are over our contracted bus services.”

Mr D’Archambaud explained that with contracted services the council can say the operator isn’t providing the level of service that is being paid for, adding that if the council isn’t happy with a contracted bus service it can cease the contract and go elsewhere

“From a commercial bus point of view, I think there’s still the misconception that we as an authority have autonomy or control over the whole bus service network,” he said.

“I think it’s less than about 10 per cent of services are run under contract, so the vast majority of buses that do operate are commercial services.

“They’re trying their very best to give them their due, but it’s an incredibly tough market they’re operating in at the moment,” he said.