And with the commuters who rely on a troubled network. Welcome to my commute. Buses are still the most used form of public transport. But every year, the number of bus journeys we take, especially outside london, is dropping. So, im going to test the network. Starting here in redcar in the north east of england, im going to go across the country coast to coast, to see how reliable are local buses really are, and whether the service is still fit for purpose. The first people i meet are on the 63, along the teesside coast and into middlesbrough. Were doing a thing about buses. Is this a good bus . No, its not . The journey is about nine miles, takes about 20 minutes and costs £6. 50. What would it take to keep you on the buses . Reduce the fares, because every few months the fares are going up and up and up. What do you think the general view is of buses amongst your mates . I think the general view is that, you know, pensioners use them because theyve got free bus passes. They say its a pensioners service, you know . Well, the Prime Minister wants it to be a bit more than that. The government has announced its spending £5 billion on the bus and cycle networks. Now, thats a lot of investment. But is it enough to get people back on the buses . This is stillington, a village of about 1,300 people six miles from stockton on tees. A minibus run by the council goes into town just four times a day. The first bus is at ten. With only 1a seats for the whole village, theres always a queue. Tell us about the bus service for your village. Its rubbish. It is. Is it fit for purpose . Can you rely on it . Yeah, you can rely on it but its only for a couple of hours, isnt it, really. The last bus back is half past one. Its no good for anybody, really. Where are you in the queue . Are you happy about where you are in the queue . Oh, yeah, im number nine. Number nines all right . Number nines on. Number nines on. Still got a quarter of an hour. Its bad enough having to get here early and queue, but if you live down the road, youve got no chance. The service finishes at lunchtime. Its a long way from the heyday of british buses. Thats three, one and eight pennies, five bob. Since the 50s, people have been giving up the bus and getting in their cars. Those without cars use public transport. Then in the 80s, privatisation effectively ended Public Ownership of britains buses. From next year, all youve got to do to run a bus service is satisfy the traffic commissioners that your buses are safe, and youre on the road. Routes were opened up to competition. For most of the country, this meant private operators were now in charge. Opponents of the bill are convinced that well see one route after another just disappearing. And some operators at the time were quite honest about what the changes meant. The great thing about the transport act, it has made it abundantly clear that our business is making money and not providing services. But over the years, lots of routes didnt prove to be so lucrative. Stillington lost its privately run regular service when the operator went out of business last year. It left locals like 18 year old sinead feeling trapped. We have quite a lot of young people in our village, and they like to socialise, and they cant do that as much with no bus, cant go downtown. A fifth of the village is under 18. Its pretty frustrating because im independent, my parents want me to be independent, and i want to pay for my own driving lessons and i cant do that yet, and thats why the bus is so important. Its also going to make it difficult for sinead to travel to university in september. Would you want to live in a village without a bus service in the future . No, i wouldnt. Its not reliable at all. So youd move away . Yeah, iwould, and i dont want to because its a really nice village to live in, but not having a bus route just ruins it. So, i finally got on the 8a. The ten oclock was too busy, so we let that go, but this is the 12 oclock, and theres plenty of space. What stillington shows you, though, is the state of the bus network in this country. Because if you live in stillington and you dont have a car then you are trapped. The network doesnt exist for you. Bbc Analysis Shows that across the whole of Great Britain in the last decade, the distance travelled by buses has fallen 159 million miles. Thats down 10 . The worst affected areas are the north east and north west of england and in wales, where its dropped by almost a fifth. For some communities, buses have almost gone. Ive moved south into yorkshire. From the market town of thirsk, im waiting for my next bus, the 150, heading to the village of helperby. Wow this is a service that runs just twice a week. Tuesdays and thursdays, thats your lot. Morning. Is this the 150 to ripon and helperby . Yes. Great, ill get on, then. I hope you know where im going, because i dont. No private operators run a scheduled service, so its another route run by the local council. They charge just £1. Its a minimal service. Hes looking for the bus stop, he doesnt know where it is. Hes found it. Customers good morning i need someone to sit there and tell me where im going. You tell him. Because this is the first day ive done this. How regular does this bus come, then, to your village . Tuesdays and thursdays. So, youre pleased to see it . Yes, because it didnt come tuesday. What do you think about a twice a week service . We cant get to hospitals, dentists. This is it . This is it, yeah. Bye councils can step in to subsidise private operators if they think a route should run. But, since austerity, they have very little spare money. Their grant from Central Government has been reduced by 60 since 2010. More than half of local transport authorities in england have cut spending on buses by 50 or more. Judith lawrence moved to helperby in retirement. She is the reality of disappearing bus services. She hasnt left the village this year. Today is tuesday, tomorrow is wednesday and every day is the same. Well, thats no way to spend a life. Its almost like a discrimination against the people in rural areas with low incomes who cant afford to take a taxi somewhere. There is no bus service, what do you do . Leave them at home, its all right, they dont matter. Judith is one of 9 Million People in england who were given a free bus pass last year. But even when its free, bus travel is falling. Bbc analysis has found journeys by older and disabled people outside london have fallen by a fifth in the last decade. So youve got a bus pass, but you havent got a bus . Ive got a bus pass and no bus. Id happily pay half fare and have a bus. Happily. Youve got a free pass to nothing. Ive got a free pass, a free pass to nowhere. Everybody who is driving now will probably reach a stage in their life where they cannot drive and they need public transport, and there wont be any because we werent able to save it, and we have to save it, so that people in the future have the benefit of that service. You seem like you get very angry about it. I do, i think its. I feel as though were being completely ignored, and we dont matter. And we do matter, very much we matter. There we are. This is the 36, very high tech. Departs in eight minutes, thats going to take us from here in ripon to our next stop, which is harrogate. Not all bus routes are dying. The Main Services between towns are thriving. How are you doing, anyway . Yeah, good. A single to harrogate police. £6. 50. The 36 has leather seats, free wi fi, an on board library, and Double Glazing so the windows dont mist up. This is designed to tempt people out of their cars and onto a double decker. From harrogate, all the stops it has until we get through to leeds, and its marvellous, theyre every ten minutes, its wonderful. Harrogate is not a town youd readily associate with strong bus use, but by giving people what they want in terms of a high specification of interior, High Frequency and basically creating a bus that theyre proud to be seen on, people use it and its popular. Its not cheap, though, is it . Obviously to put a high Specification Service on, we think the price is quite justified, we think itsjustified compared to the cost of parking in leeds, and the cost of using the rail service. But for private operators, there are areas where running a service just isnt financially viable. I suppose you find in certain places that these places have become so car dependent, its very difficult to separate people from their cars. And the volumes of people arent there tojustify running something that has 50 seats on board. And the more cars there are, the more pollution. If the uk is to meet its net zero carbon target by 2050, that has to change. The number 36 terminates in leeds, which has some of the most congested roads in the uk. Now, getting more people on buses would help ease congestion and reduce carbon emissions. That means people like marti and declan need to trust them. Live timetables on bus. Is it right, though . Yeah, 48 minutes, its due. Dont yawn, dont yawn, youll make me yawn, its too early. Each morning, the two brothers make the journey from their home in farnley on the edge of leeds to the city centre, and then on to bradford. 0oh, early doors, man. Four minutes. Great 0oh, early doors, man. Four minutes. Can i get two West Yorkshire riders, please . £10. 40 for me and him. 50 quid between us at the end of the week, but some weeks it can be more say if we miss the bus and have to get a taxi or whatever. City centre congestion doesnt just mean pollution, it means delays. Marti and declan kept a diary of their daily commute, and the issues they face. Ive been stood at the board waiting for 15 minutes. The bus never turned up. I thought, all right, theres another one due in 20 minutes. Ill wait. Waited for 20 minutes and now its got another a0 minutes to wait at the bus stop, so ive been at the bus stop 35 minutes for absolutely nothing, so now im walking home. Its currently 17 29. The traffic is absolutely chaos, this road that were travelling down often takes about ten, 15, 20 minutesjust to get down the road on its own. A key point here as well to mention is the bus stop, if you are just here and you didnt have the live tracker on your phone, anything like that, and were relying on the timetable, you aint got one. We rely on the service. If we havent got that service, weve got no way of getting to work or so on and so on. They seem to be getting less reliable as time goes on. Theyll have you stood there for a while not turning up. Is that right . Yeah. Oh, you cant rely on them, then . No. The brothers are fed up with the buses. The city might want them to use public transport, but they want to drive. Why do you use the bus . Well, weve got. We havent. We havent got no licence. Were going halves or a van as 5001 as. As soon as we can afford it, well get the van, itll help us with work and we can naff the buses off. The best day of my life is when i get my licence and i dont have to stand and get on one of them again. Is that right . Yeah, thats damn right. Regulation still exists on punctuality. Companies can be fined if too many buses dont run on time. But panorama has found that in the last five years just a0 penalties have been issued across more than 20,000 bus routes in britain. 0n myjourney coast to coast, im about halfway now and what ive found is a service that seems like its in trouble. Cost and reliability, theyre big issues, but the one i keep hearing is services that are being reduced or even just disappearing. Now, im on my way to todmorden, which is on the yorkshire lancashire border, and here, people say the cuts, theyre affecting the whole community. Theres a meeting in the towns church. Its packed. In recent weeks, the service to burnley has been halved from half hourly to hourly. There are a lot of angry people. This is the chance for them to confront the council and the bus company. I witness buses that are up to a0 minutes late, leaving me and my two year old son in the fantastic weather that weve been experiencing. I have an elderly relative in a care home nearby. The staff work very hard for low wages, they work 12 hour shifts. These are the people that look after our loved ones. They run to get, catch their bus and theyre stood there for an hour at night in the cold if they miss it. Its disgraceful. The trouble is, the council has no money for extra services, and commercial Bus Operators need to make profit to survive. Ive travelled across the country and there are hundreds of thousands of people like this, who think the service doesnt work, that the bus model is broken. So, youre a commercial man, and youre a councilman. How do we solve it . What is really the answer, rather than tinkering around the edges . We work very closely with the combined authority and with the council to try and make services as reliable as possible. Its about providing sustainable service, um, but that is all very much dependent upon passengers, so passengers always is number one, because without passengers we dont have a service. The reality is neither the bus company nor the council are able to give the people of todmorden what they want. How do you feel at meetings like this . Because everybody blames you, they all give you grief. They want you to say theres going to be loads more buses but you dont have any more money. You must feel in a very difficult position. You cant promise what they want. No. You cant give them what they want. Id love to. Its impossible to satisfy everybodys needs. You used the expression in the meeting tinker around the edges and to a certain extent, some of that tinkering is, is what you need to actually listen to what people say and make some small changes that actually address some of those needs. But ultimately it needs, it needs more to satisfy what everybody wants. What does the bus model look like in the future, do you think . Its not going to exist. If they carry on like this, nobody will use it. They cant use it, you cant rely on it. Its a waste of time, waste of time. Bbc analysis has found more than a Million People in britain no longer have access to a regular bus service. Thats more than 500,000 households more than a mile from a bus stop with a regular service. All things wise and wonderful, the lord god made them all. Fantastic, well done. We found the words. Can you read them 0k . I think you know them, dont you . Well, i used to go to church. Did you . Jenny is a care worker and one of those who struggles daily with the Todmorden Burnley service. Today, shes with angela at her home in hebden bridge. Ive done shifts where im 7 in the morning to 10 at night, 30 minute calls, hour calls, and then going from person to person to person, either waiting for buses or having to walk in torrential rain. It makes a difference. And id have more choice ofjobs if there was a good transport network. Even your ability to work as an nhs worker is dependent on which part of the country you live in. Very frustrating. Yeah. How do you describe the transport system that you live with up here . In london, you pay £1. 50 to get on a bus, its free for kids. Up here it costs £6. 40 just for one adult and two kids to travel four miles. So its a huge difference and theres no justification for the fact that it is three to four times more expensive to travel on buses in this part of the world to london. Part of the reason is the difference in subsidy. In london, the public money spent on buses works out at nearly £90 per person. In england, outside of london, its a third of that, just less than £30. And in london, the whole transport system is integrated. Thats not the case on my next stop manchester. Even when there are plenty of buses, the system can be messy. Like most of the uk, manchester has several different bus companies. Then theres trams and a rail network, and all are charging separate fares. Which is not great for people like tom. He teaches music at schools across manchester and salford. Every day, he has to put his faith in the bus system. So its 8. 10 and youve got be in for 10. Are we going to make it . Um, yeah, yeah we should, should be ok, yeah, as long as everything kind of, you know, goes to plan. He has to navigate his way by bus, metro tram and train, with separate tickets for each one. Well have to get the bus ticket, which is about six quid, um, yeah, yeah we should, should be ok, yeah, as long as everything kind of, you know, goes to plan. He has to navigate his way by bus, metro tram and train, with separate tickets for each one. Well have to get the bus ticket, which is about six quid, got to get the train, which is about a fiver, and then ill have to really get a met ticket as well which will be another five or six quid. Um, so, yeah, its upward of 15 quid. Just to get to work . Yeah. Now its 27 minutess past eight and theres still no sign of it. It might be a bit touch and go. Theres a bus now. Oh yeah, this looks promising. That 56 hasnt showed. This is the 156. The bus that he came for didnt show up, so hes getting this one now, the 156, which is the later bus. The trains at quarter past. If i dont make that train, then im screwed, really. If you work in a job where if youre late, you know, if its a zero hours contract or whatever, like mine is, then you cant really afford to be late on a regular basis. Theylljust bin you off and so that is a bit of a stress really, you know. The delay caused by a bus not showing up and roadworks in the city means that tom is now late for his tram. Only one option left run. Theres an altrincham in two minutes so, should be all right, hopefully. Well done. Toms off the metro tram, but still running late theres an altrincham in two minutes so, should be all right, hopefully. Well done. Toms off the metro tram, but still running late to catch the train. Platform three . We made it, though only because the train is late. So, welcome to my commute ive had more fun on a wednesday morning. So youve just made it. Not without busting a gut. I had to really run there. I dont think anyone whos not kind of a bit fit is going to make that, and it werent, its no fault of my own. Like, ifeel like people say, oh, well, get an earlier bus. Well, we tried to get the early bus, it didnt show. My case has broke as well. This is the second one. Toms made it to schooljust in time. A ukuleles got a body and a head its got no arms and legs there is a different way. Some authorities like manchester could take control. Theyd choose fares and routes and the buses would be run by private companies. Thats what happens in london, where buses are cheaper and more frequent. But london buses are subsidised by money from the tube, so that model might not work everywhere. It might work in some of the bigger cities, where weve got the scale of a bus network and the scale of public transport, be it trams, trains, or other services that can integrate and make it work. For rural areas, its probably not going to be appropriate. All the energy has gone on to serving our cities and connecting them. What we need to look at is ho