Are communities being cut off from Kent thanks to a lack of bus services

KentOnline / KMTV

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00:00Buses, a lifeline for thousands. But ask anyone who uses services in Kent and they'll tell

00:08you they're not what they used to be.

00:11None of us will be going out. We'll be prisoners in our own home.

00:14It's a private enterprise being run with public money.

00:17Bus companies say they're having to cut back on routes due to fewer passengers.

00:22We have to make sure that we can continue to operate in a proper manner. At the end

00:26of the day, we are a business just like a sweet shop or a major supermarket.

00:31Experts warn that bus travel must remain an attractive option.

00:35Well, it is the growth in use of private cars becoming more and more a piece of most people's

00:40households.

00:42With devolution on the cards, huge reform could be on the way.

00:46The Tory Transport Act of 1986, we're not allowed to have a TFL for Kent type system

00:52which is what we need.

00:53But will it be enough to fix Kent's bus crisis?

01:03It's just gone 11am on the Queensway Estate in Sheerness. These pensioners waiting for

01:08the 362 to take them into town for shopping. They all rely on the bus.

01:13Because of the means of transport, I don't drive and I can't walk because I've got bad

01:19legs, so it's just hard to catch the bus. But, yep, you're restricted.

01:24The last service into town is at 1.20 in the afternoon. Sylvia, in her 90s, takes the bus

01:30once a week. It drops her at Tesco. By the time she's finished shopping in town, there's

01:36no bus home and she has to take a taxi.

01:42Nothing's helping people on the island. It's just going downhill. And they're not looking

01:50after what the people want, you know. At my age, and a lot of other people, elderly, it's

01:57too tiring.

01:59They say services have been cut back again and again.

02:04You know, with the cutbacks and cutbacks, with the government as well, I know that's

02:08nothing to do with the buses, but I think Queensway will just get left behind.

02:14Why do you think Queensway's being left behind?

02:16I really don't know, because we're all old and we're handicapped. They're thinking if

02:23we leave them long enough, they all might just sort of give up and, you know, just become

02:28hermits.

02:35Elsewhere on the Isle of Sheppey, a mum of three in Laysdowne, one of the most rural

02:40areas, she relies on the bus to get her daughter to hospital appointments in Maidstone. Her

02:47daughter is partially blind and while buses do run here, the last one is just after six,

02:54makes it almost impossible to get there and back in a day. Her husband has to take the

03:00day off work to get them there.

03:04It would be really lovely if people in higher government could understand that not everything

03:11has to be centralised, that the rural communities, the real outreached ones, are the ones that

03:18really need the support, because Croydon's got enough buses, they've got the tram link,

03:23they don't need any more money. We need it here and we need it up and down the country

03:28and the rural communities where there is no infrastructure.

03:33Why are we seeing so many cuts? I've come to meet the man who runs New Venture Buses

03:40to find out what it takes to be an operator in 2025.

03:44Lovely to meet you, could we just ask all about your buses?

03:48We're New Venture, we're based in Ellesford near Maidstone, we operate about 30 buses

03:53in the community, round about Medway and throughout Kent.

03:56I guess part of the challenge is actually getting people onto the buses in the first

04:00place and if they're not viable then you're going to have to cut a bus. I mean, for people

04:05who live in rural communities, as a bus operator, explain why you've had to make those difficult

04:09decisions.

04:10Because the income from fares is insufficient to cover the costs of the fuel, the driver

04:15and so on. We need to have funding to ensure that the company can be sustained on a day-to-day

04:24basis and little bits of that which become unpopular mean that we have to take what might

04:31be seen as drastic action.

04:34Buses outside London were deregulated in the 1980s, that means they're privately run, but

04:40councils can subsidise routes. Kent County Council says it's had to cut back in order

04:46to fund its statutory services. Yet the council has just received £23m from central government.

04:54Now Kent is a very large place and buses are very expensive and that money won't go very

04:59far and he can't spend all of it on subsidising buses. Some of it is capital spend, but what

05:05he can do is try to ensure that the Isle of Sheppey gets its fair share of that money.

05:13Since 2010 there's been a 30% drop in bus miles travelled. With council subsidies decreasing,

05:20another type of local authority have stepped in in some areas to pay for services. This

05:27is one of two weekly services stopping in Borough Green.

05:31The parish councils haven't got revenue caps so we can put the precept up to cover this

05:39sort of cost and there was a real willingness amongst the parish councils, the whole group

05:44of 12 of them, to get involved in this and get it up and running. And it's a success

05:49with between 15 to 20 literally every bus every week.

05:55But it's unlikely this could be scaled up across the whole of the county.

05:59But in Kent and Medway there are hundreds of different routes operated by a whole load

06:04of different operators, big and small. But 97% of those are commercially viable with

06:10the rest funded by parishes or county councils.

06:15With fears growing that services could worsen in the coming years, is there any hope for

06:20public transport? Devolution will happen at some point.

06:26The Promise is a TFL for Kent. The Promise is an integrated transport service that isn't

06:32just about, you know, there is a bus company that can deal with this small part of a county

06:37where you don't get economies of scale, where you're essentially allowing private companies

06:41to call the shots. Instead you can have a system controlled by the democratically elected

06:46representatives who do the franchising, who choose the routes and then just find a contractor

06:51to carry it out, just as happens in London.

06:54The bus operators are sceptical that copying the Transport for London model in Kent will

06:59work.

07:01The bus operators have very little say in how the bus network works. It's largely controlled

07:07by politicians. And when you get politicians controlling something, sometimes the commerciality

07:12can be taken out of situations. I don't believe that the TFL model is financially sustainable

07:20above all.

07:21Yet there is broad agreement that local government reorganisation could lead to better co-ordination

07:28when it comes to buses.

07:29I think a lot could be done with the existing structures, but if structures are simplified

07:35and there's less authorities, then yes, certainly. But what it does need is a full understanding

07:40and the expertise and skills in whatever organisation is going to take the business and local authority

07:46forward in actually being able to overcome the challenges that are here. And we see a

07:52bright future for public transport.

07:54Neil Baker, the county councillor responsible for buses, has far less power than a mayor

08:00ever would. But says devolution is the ticket to the bus crisis.

08:05I think devolution could unlock lots of current logjams in the bus system. The big thing with

08:12all of this now or in the future is going to be funding. It's going to be difficult

08:16without seed funding, without some subsidies in places to actually really transform our

08:21public transport network. But I think devolution does that, both in the immediate term with

08:25having a mayor right at the top table being able to bang the drum for these improvements.

08:30But what could a bus network in Kent look like under devolution? Both fast track routes

08:37in the county have been given millions of pounds worth of funding from the government

08:42and electric buses are set to be coming later this year.

08:46Many people will say if they get a bus they want to know that they'll be able to get it

08:50when they want to get it and it arrives when they want it to arrive. Otherwise they'll

08:54just default back to using the private car. You do need a certain number of people to

08:59get the services viable. Clearly you're not going to have fast track running between villages

09:02of 40 houses. But hopefully in this move and the funding that's coming with it from central

09:08government, as long as it is, everyone should start benefiting.

09:11But earlier this month there was another bump in the road, the Kent's bus crisis. Devolution

09:17delayed. Real change isn't now expected until the end of the decade. Bus campaigners fear

09:24what could happen in the meantime. The group Save Our Buses was set up in response to declining

09:30stagecoach services, particularly in rural areas across Folkestone. They believe timetables

09:36will continue to shrink until devolution arrives.

09:40So I just set up a group to make it for action. So rather than just say to the stagecoach

09:45we think you're wrong, we're actually going to the MP, we're going to the government,

09:49we're going to everybody that is affected by buses to try and make some changes.

09:55These campaigners are forming a so-called people's focus group, bringing together operators,

10:01councils and passengers.

10:04We should be able to tell people, the bus companies, this is the best way to operate

10:09but they won't listen to us, sadly at the moment. But we will keep trying.

10:13And do you think devolution will make any differences to buses here?

10:16Yes I do, and I think a mayor of Kent will be solely responsible for running the buses,

10:23they will control the routes and more importantly they'll control the profits because with stagecoaches

10:28at the moment they have what they call their golden routes where they're making a lot of

10:31money and they have the less well-off routes like my 74 service and they won't subsidise

10:39one with the other. But when the franchise system comes in and under the Andy Burnham

10:43scheme in Greater Manchester, the more profitable routes will subsidise the less profitable routes.

10:49Stagecoach says the combination of rising costs and fewer passengers mean they've had

10:54to face some tough decisions about loss-making services.

10:58With no quick fix in sight, the question does remain. Can Kent keep its buses running long

11:05enough for devolution to make any difference?

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