ALL aboard for my campaign to deliver better bus services for our area.
My grandad and father-in-law were bus drivers, so I’ve always loved buses and it has been one of my priorities to restore services in our area.
These services are the lifeblood for our communities. They are drivers of economic growth, keep people connected, and open up all kinds of opportunities for people.
Unfortunately, under the last Government, bus services in England’s regions outside London virtually collapsed. They were starved of funding – with just £800,000 provided by central Government for bus improvements in the whole of Cumbria in 2023/24.
We lost over 50% of our bus services in Cumbria, and England as-a-whole has lost 300 million miles of bus routes a year since 2010!
That had a huge impact on our communities, and it is one of the issues that gets raised with me most regularly.
People have told me they want action to improve local buses and the Government has listened by massively increasing the bus funding available to Cumbrian councils.
So this year our councils funding has gone up from £800,000 to a massive £19m! Then over the next four years our councils are getting a long term settlement worth over £28m to keep the progress going.
On top of the funding, the Government are supporting Westmorland and Furness and Cumberland Council to be part of a national franchising pilot so we can lead the way in taking control of our bus network and transforming services to work for everyone.
With this money, and these reforms, we have the chance to transform local services. Reversing years of decline to provide passengers with lower fares, more frequent and reliable services, and safer journeys.
This will ease the cost of living and make it easier for people to get to work, to travel to hospital appointments and for social plans, which will help to improve the economy.
So now, after years of decline, better buses are on the way.
I want to make sure that the local residents are able to feed in to how the changes are made. If there is an existing bus route that you would like to see improved, or a new bus route you would like to see added then join my Better Buses campaign at www.michellescrogham.com/betterbuses
I know my bus-driving grandad and father-in-law would approve!