MONDAY, January 23, saw another bus service cut for residents from Halton Hospital to Chester.

The 21 now operates from Halton Lea to Helsby, but instead of going through Halton Lodge and Beechwood Avenue it now goes along Palacefields Avenue into Wood Lane through Frodsham before turning around at Tesco Helsby and going back to Halton Lea.

This means that Beechwood residents, along with many others en route, have now just one bus service to and from Runcorn to Frodsham/Chester each hour.

This will have an impact not only on Beechwood residents but also on people who work in Chester.

Last Tuesday an Arriva employee was on hand to answer questions about bus services in the Mersey Gateway visitor centre.

The answer I got was that people are getting on at Halton and throughout Runcorn but not enough get on and off at each stop to make the bus pay.

I said: “Is this not what the bus service is for?”

Public transport is to get people to where they want to go, not where Arriva wants them to go.

The answer back was: “We are a business to make money, not to operate routes that don’t pay.”

What is happening to public transport when the Government wants us to make a cleaner environment by leaving cars at home but bus companies only want to run them if they make a significant profit?

Beechwood already has no public buses from 6.35pm on Saturday until Monday morning, making residents without transport even more isolated.

Arriva UK Bus is part of the Arriva group, which is owned by Deutsche Bahn.

Arriva is a leading pan-European public transport operator with around 54,500 employees and operations across 14 European countries.

Another cut being imposed by a foreign-owned company.

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