REGARDING the story, "Bus services set to be cut across Bolton", it is riddled with errors, and shows little or no proper investigation.

First, most of the changes listed are “commercial” changes, made by operators without any involvement of TfGM. This is generally in response to passenger usage or requests.

The 68 – A change made to benefit passengers following a recent consultation. This will serve an area that has requested more buses, Roe Green, and all that is being omitted are two pairs of stops that hardly anybody uses. Tendered journeys at night are being rerouted to follow this revision, with no impact on cost.

The 512 / 513 – This is the only full-time tendered service (i.e. TfGM contract), and is being changed due to reliability issues, as the service has been changed a few times over the years to cover other services that have been withdrawn. This will allow TfGM to run the core part of the service (Farnworth to Bury) with the same level of service, using the same number of buses, so there is no real reduction to the cost concerned. In fact, it virtually restores the service to its original route as the services never used to operate to/from Bolton, and it in fact quicker to change at Farnworth onto the 8 or 37 services than to remain on the bus all of the way.

The 515 – This service is being withdrawn, but the links are all there, with the exception of the cross-town link. The 515 previously operated through to Middlebrook to replace the 574, so all that is basically happening is the 574 is being brought back, and one 515 per hour is being withdrawn (as it was within 5 or 10 minutes of a 715), and the other is being renumbered 715 in line with the main through service to Wigan.

The 515X – Basically being renumbered 715A.

The 537 / 538 – Commercial changes in response to passenger usage. Both services had low usage north of Ashworth Lane so makes sense to concentrate the resources on where people use the bus (Bank Top estate). The 537 directly followed the Transdev number 1 service.

The only “proper” TfGM cutback is the LocalLink service mentioned in the story. This was extended to cover areas previously served by the 537 before Arriva withdrew that from Edgworth, however Blackburn with Darwen Council extended their tendered 37 service to cover this part of the route, and another operator has since introduced a limited market day service from Edgworth to/from Bolton so the LocalLink was not well used, therefore wasting money.

TfGM do not plan to replace the 515 with the 715 and 574, the operator does. In retrospect, none of these changes are in response to the cutbacks in TfGM’s budget.

Nicholas Lawley