A major nationwide study of bus services provision has found that Exeter bus services have been cut by nearly 42% since 2010 while services in neighbouring East Devon have increased.
The University of Leeds Institute for Transport Studies and Friends of the Earth collaborated on an an analysis of all local and national bus timetable data to understand services provision changes over a fifteen year period.
In Exeter bus services have fallen by 69 trips per hour over the past thirteen years, from 167 in 2010 to 98 trips per hour this year.
This is the largest fall in provision, both proportionally and in service numbers, of any of the four Greater Exeter districts. The fall is also 10% greater than the Devon county average.
Exeter area bus services trends map. Source: University of Leeds Institute for Transport Studies.
The research findings, which cover England and Wales, are presented as an interactive map showing transport authority, parliamentary constituency, local authority and neighbourhood level data.
Many of the worst-affected Exeter neighbourhoods are in areas of the city where major developments are planned or being built.
Some are inside or alongside the Heavitree & Whipton Active Streets trial area.
In its full report on the findings, Friends of the Earth cites a recent Transport for Quality of Life report which concludes that two major changes are needed to provide the bus services we need.
One is more money. Around £2 billion a year of capital investment is required alongside additional operating expenditure of around £7.5 billion per year to enable more than 47 billion annual car driver and passenger kilometres to shift to public transport by 2030.
The other is the reversal of 1980s bus services deregulation, giving all local transport authorities the powers to franchise bus services and manage them as a public service.
