MP Brine set to battle for bus services (From Hampshire Chronicle)

MP Brine set to battle for bus services

4:31pm Friday 30th July 2010

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Winchester’S MP has pledged to fight for rural bus services as an axe hangs over Government funding.

The countryside will suffer severely reduced bus services while passengers across the country face a 10 per cent hike in fares if ministers scrap a subsidy, transport campaigners have warned.

Bus subsidies could be cut to protect big new programmes such as HS2, the high-speed rail line from London to the north.

Campaigners have warned if the £454m bus service operators’ grant is withdrawn, “lifeline” routes through the countryside and between towns will be cut.

Some rural areas could lose their only public transport links in rerun of the reforms that slashed railway services in the 1960s, warns a report by the Campaign for Better Transport.

Winchester and Chandler’s Ford MP Steve Brine has promised to take up the issue with ministers who will decide within weeks where the axe will fall on a £15.9bn transport budget.

Mr Brine said: “I will most certainly be speaking with ministers about bus subsidies. I am very aware many of the people I represent rely on services, especially in the towns and villages outside of the city.

“We are pledged to keep the free bus pass for pensioners but that will be useless without viable services.

“The coalition government is however battling a record deficit which means any spending protected in one area has to come from somewhere else.

“I hope the Campaign for Better Transport has some suggestions in this regard for the Chancellor."

The coalition of bus companies, environmentalists and unions, said school bus services could also be hit.

Local authorities, responsible for bus services and roads, have already had their budgets cut.

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