Somerset councils defend bus services after critical video goes viral
A Tik Tok video detailing a four hour bus ride through the county has been viewed tens of thousands of times
A Tik Tok video having a go at the quality of bus services in Somerset has been viewed more than 43-thousand times since being posted last week (August 13).
It's been put together by a reporter for The Big Issue magazine - who says it took him four hours to go from Illminster to Nailsea by bus - when it would be just less than an hour by car.
The video, which you can watch below, is captioned "come with me on the county's worst bus network" and claims Illminster is one of the worst connected places in the country, while Nailsea is one of the best.
PLEASE NOTE: The video below includes some coarse language at the start which you may find offensive
Problems the reporter references include the cost of bus tickets, the reliability of services and the space available on them.
We asked the relevant local councils and First West of England, who run many of the bus services in Somerset, for a response.
A Somerset County Council spokesperson told us they are looking to improve the number of services in rural areas.
"However, bus operators run commercial services and cannot sustain services that are not being used," they said.
“The council spends £5 million on subsidising services across Somerset but we can’t subsidise every service that isn’t commercially viable, which is why we are also running a campaign to encourage more people to use existing services.
“We need more people using buses - it’s better for the environment and is usually cheaper than using your car."
They add that there will be more services if more people use the bus.
“We have already attracted nearly £12 million of funding from Government to improve services.
"We have a rural new bus hub planned for Somerton and we’re introducing a £1 fare in Taunton.
"We’d like to roll this out to other towns when more funding comes online and continue to press central government for fairer funding for rural services.”
We also received a statement from North Somerset Council, who reiterated the County Council's argument that residents must "use it or lose it" regarding bus services.
“Commercial bus companies operate the vast majority of bus routes in North Somerset and decide where and how often these run," a spokesperson told us.
"We recognise the challenges they face – there is a shortage of drivers and usage hasn’t yet returned to levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We haven’t yet received the funding to deliver our Bus Service Improvement Plan and unfortunately the government will not allow us to use this funding to replace routes like-for-like.
"We stepped in to save some services earlier this year but we can’t commit to indefinite subsidy.
"Without additional government funding, we can’t afford to replace current routes.
“We are committed to lobbying government and working with partners, communities and bus operators to explore every avenue to maintain vital services wherever possible."
Bus operators have been struggling across the west country since the pandemic.
In the Bristol area several routes run by First West of England are set to be cut in the autumn including the X2 Yatton to Bristol, X5 Weston-super-Mare to Bristol via Clevedon and Portishead and the 126 from Weston to Wells.
Metro Mayor Dan Norris has recently been holding meetings with residents to discuss ways to save the routes and recently claimed people would be willing to pay more in tax to do so.
The Labour mayor is responsible for the region’s strategic planning, skills and transport but has to rely on money from the West of England Combined Authority's three constituent councils – Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset – to keep subsidised buses running.
First West of England did not respond to a request for comment.