‘You wait ages for one to come then two get cancelled’ - Why south Bristol bus cuts are no surprise

In rather predictable news, south Bristol will be worse off thanks to a council decision
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“You wait for ages for a bus and then two come along at once”, a familiar saying but pretty far-fetched in south Bristol - in fact, you’re more likely to see two get cancelled.

Living in Hartcliffe, there are two buses to rely on for reaching the city centre - the 76 and 52. The 52 is soon to be axed by the lovely people at First Bus. The route is direct to Cabot Circus and runs once every two hours. Those who use the service often don’t think too much of its reliability, at least according to the passengers I spoke to during an afternoon riding the 52, but beggars can’t be choosers in south Bristol.

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Due to a funding row, from April, 42 publicly subsidised services will no longer be funded and most likely be withdrawn. Despite understanding how crucial some of the services being cut were to their community, the West of England combined authority (WECA) signed off the cuts to 60% of the region’s 69 subsidised services.

You would be hard-pressed to find a group of people happy with how efficient Bristol’s buses are, even if you travel north of the River Avon. But, more than 100,000 live in south Bristol and it isn’t often we get shiny new things - or a new transport link taking us to the shiny new thing built for those elsewhere in the city. A select group of people who, most likely, have not stepped foot in the area’s neighbourhoods deciding to chip away at the bare-boned infrastructure in place doesn’t seem fair.

The obvious question that comes to mind when comparing the number of bus routes around the city is ‘Is there a reason south Bristol has been short-changed?’ This question isn’t limited to bus services in the city though. Earlier this year, Bristol World compared the 10 poorest neighbourhoods based on average household income, with south Bristol neighbourhoods taking six spots on the list - Hartcliffe was ranked as the poorest. The region’s only remaining cinema, in Hengrove, is earmarked for demolition and Bristol City Council promised to learn lessons after closing the South Bristol Rehab Centre last summer.

The council was pleased to announce it had secured levelling up funding for Filwood Broadway last month. Around £15million will be poured into the area to kickstart its high street. The same area has had redevelopment plans shelved by the council for the last decade. You can forgive south Bristolians for thinking they aren’t at the forefront of policymakers’ minds.

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Bus cuts are nothing new and it is quite impressive how a failing service could sink even lower in the eyes of those who rely on it. The way to improve this is quite simple: if you won’t build nice things in south Bristol, the least you could do is add more buses to take us around the city.

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