PASSENGERS are making millions more journeys by bus in Bournemouth and Poole than in 2009-10

Data from the Department for Transport shows that passengers in Bournemouth took a combined 17.4 million bus journeys in 2016-17 – 1.9m more than in 2009-10, when figures were first recorded.

Passengers in Poole took 10.4m bus journeys in the same period – 2.7m more than in 2009-10.

As the Echo reported this week, increasing congestion in the conurbation is slowing buses to a crawl during peak times. The average speed of a Yellow Bus in rush hour is now less than 10mph.

Meanwhile, the timetabled length of a Morebus journey between Bournemouth and Poole town centres in the morning rush hour has risen from 29 minutes to 40 minutes in just eight years.

Reducing bus use is the trend across England as a whole, and in the Dorset county area, where passengers took 8.7m bus journeys in 2016-17, or 1.6m fewer than in 2009-10. Campaigners say unreliable services and rising fares are taking a toll. Local passengers spoke of rising prices and overcrowding.

Jay Stephens, 41, from Bournemouth, said: "I can always get a bus to get me there on time, but during rush hour they get too crowded and it’s uncomfortable. I think more services would be needed at busy times during the morning and the evening."

Christie Evans, 24, from Moordown, said: "I think the service is good. But with the two shake-ups over the last two years, I have two less buses an hour into the town centre but I’m paying more. That makes no sense to me.”

Dawn Badminton, director of Bus Users UK, said local authority funding cuts have led to many subsidised routes being stopped.

“Local authorities have had to take some really tough decisions," she said.

“Withdrawing that money means that we have lost services, usually in areas where ridership is not high, such as in rural communities. I don’t think we will ever get back to the levels we had previously.”

She added: “We know of some communities that have been practically cut off. They try and support people through community transport, but that can’t always offer the same coverage.”

Across England, the figures show that between 2009 and 2017, the average bus fare in England – excluding London – increased by 34 per cent.

Over the same period, the cost to bus companies of running services increased by 15 per cent, but the revenue earned increased by just eight per cent.

The average number of journeys taken by each person in Bournemouth dropped slightly from 90 in 2009-10 to 88 in 2016-17, and in Dorset from 25 to 21. In Poole the number of journeys increased from 53 to 69.

The number of concessionary journeys taken by elderly and disabled passengers remained steady in the conurbation, but plunged by 23 per cent in the Dorset county area.