Since April 2011, the University has operated a number of subsidised bus services in partnership with Travel de Courcey. These services were intended to provide transport for staff and students travelling to and from the main campus in the early morning.

A review of these bus services shows that a number of the routes are underutilised, meaning that the subsidisation of these services is no longer sustainable. Therefore, we have given notice to Travel De Courcey to cease these bus services on 31^st January 2020. The following Travel de Courcey routes will no longer continue after 31^st January 2020:

• W3
• W4
• W5
• W6
• W7
• 43W
  

Since 2011, new routes have been created by other bus companies and many staff have left or moved from addresses on the subsidised routes. This has contributed to a decline in numbers on the Travel de Courcey services – they are down by 1,191 passenger journeys between this year and last, and some bus services have been running with only two passengers. Based on drop in sessions that we held last year, we believe this drop in passenger journey numbers is due to other bus companies creating new routes.

This underutilised service costs the University over a quarter of a million pounds per year (£274,200 pa), and a notified future price rise would have increased this subsidy even further.

We understand that withdrawing these subsidised bus services will have an impact on a small number of our staff and students, and we have been working with these colleagues to mitigate this impact as much as possible. For instance, National Express has now agreed to change the timetable for the Number 11 bus service so that it arrives at 05:50 on campus instead of 6am, and a 5% discount has been negotiated by the University towards the cost of a National Express annual travel card.

For more information on alternative services that are available, or to speak to someone that can help you if you will be impacted by these changes, visit the estates web pages or contact Graham Hine – Transport Manager.