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Search forAnger at plans to axe bus routes into Bristol
Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 22:06
The company is cancelling the X62, which serves Mangotsfield and Downend, and the X74 and 74 services to Bradley Stoke.
First says low customer demand is behind the network changes, which come into effect on February 1 next year.
But the move has provoked anger from campaigners and district councillors who said people in South Gloucestershire are being gradually isolated from the city centre.
First received criticism from people in Southmead last year when it removed the 55 service from its network in the north half of the city.
In May this year First announced plans to withdraw five routes – the 48, 329, X30, X40 and X42 to north and east Bristol and South Gloucestershire.
The firm later modified these plans and stopped running the X30 and X40 in August, with timetable modifications made to the other routes serving the area.
And two routes – the X84 and the 99 to the north east of the city – were also stopped in June.
The X62 has been at risk since last year, after First announced that too few passengers could cause the route to be cancelled.
The company ran a publicity campaign to encourage more people to use the service, after 800 people signed a petition to keep it.
It was cut to a commuter service – running six times into the city centre during morning rush hour and six times back to Mangotsfield in the early evening – and fares were reduced.
But First says that the buses are still normally only 20 per cent full and claims that there is often only a handful of people using it.
Alternatives for passengers travelling to Downend or Mangotsfield from the city centre will be the 48 or 4 services, taking more than twice as long as the X62 which travels up the M32.
Peris Jones, 79, from Mangotsfield, helped organise last year's petition to save the X62.
She said: "This is a really useful service, not just for commuters but also people who want to get back to Downend or Mangotsfield quickly after going shopping in the city centre.
"I'm really surprised that the service is being withdrawn because I would have thought it would be really popular.
"First they took it away during the day, which people found quite upsetting, and now the commuter and afternoon services are going as well.
"The trouble is that First doesn't have any competition.
"If there were more bus services operating, tickets would be cheaper and so more people would use the buses.
"The general feeling is that First is a greedy company and until there's someone else to compete with them they are going to carry on doing this."
Cllr Rob Jones, of South Gloucestershire Council and Bradley Stoke Town Council, said: "It's a death by a thousand cuts for these services as First has repeatedly cut them back over the last year or so.
"I'm not surprised that not enough people are using them, as First is always making unannounced changes to them."
His colleague Cllr John Ashe said: "First hasn't even had the decency to consult local residents about the impact that these ill-thought through changes will have, particularly that residents living along Bailey's Court Road, Webbs Heath Road and others will be losing their only direct route into the city centre or to major employers in the local area like AXA."
First's commercial director Simon Cursio said: "We decided to de-register the X62 service 12 months ago and gave it a trial period bBut it continued to suffer from low passenger numbers.
"We have done a marketing campaign on it and given it a cheaper fare but the demand simply isn't there.
"The 74 is one journey each way and the X74 is just one morning journey.
"We are talking about just 15 journeys a day, a small percentage of our total services in Bristol, just 15 daily journeys from a total of more around 3,000."
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