A regional daily has demanded better bus services for its readers as its patch prepares for more than 40 routes to be cut.

The Bristol Post and its Bristol Live sister website have launched the ‘Better Buses for Bristol’ campaign after the west of England Combined Authority gave the green light to 42 routes across the region being axed.

As part of the campaign, the Post is calling for the cuts to be scrapped

The newspaper also wants to see a return to franchising, which would bring buses back under public control and regulation.

The Post splashed on the campaign’s launch on Monday, pictured.

In an accompanying editorial, senior reporter Tristan Cork wrote: “Bristol has a reputation as one of the greenest cities in the country, but also one of the worst for traffic congestion and pollution.

“Bristol seems to be at the forefront of every transport innovation going, but its main public transport system is notorious throughout the country.

“Talk to anyone from anywhere else in the country who has ever stayed in or lived in Bristol and they’ll tell us what we already know only too well – the buses in Bristol are terrible.

“The only good news bus passengers have had recently is the Government’s decision to extend the £2 cap on bus fares for another three months until the end of June – but prices are expected to increase at some point this year.

“Today, Bristol Live is joining with pretty much everyone else in the city to demand Better Buses for Bristol.

“We are saying enough is enough. We are demanding an end to almost continual cuts to buses in the city now, and for the longer term solution, we are calling on the Metro Mayor Dan Norris to start the ball rolling on taking back control of the buses in Bristol and creating a franchise system.

“Pretty much every week for the past decade or more, we have reported on the poor state of the bus services in Bristol, so we know perhaps more than most that the problems afflicting the buses in this city are not simple, and the solutions are even more complicated.

“But the responses from those in charge have been woeful, and there appears to be an over-riding sense of managed decline, and playing a blame game, rather than coming together, stopping the rot and creating a public transport service for Bristol that is fit for the 2020s.”