Proposals for a free bus service in Guernsey have been scrapped after operator Stagecoach raised concerns that passenger demand would overwhelm existing capacity on high-demand routes during a proposed one-year pilot scheme.
Deputies Sally Rochester and Ross Le Brun withdrew their amendment to the 2027 budget after pushing the Policy and Resources Committee for £1.9m to enable the existing public transport service
to be made free of charge. The plan aimed to make the public transport network free of charge as a cost-of-living measure. Speaking to BBC Radio Guernsey, Rochester explained that the amendment was intended to support community members facing cost-of-living challenges and to deliver the transport strategy so people could access a free bus service to make their lives easier and better.
Stagecoach Capacity Concerns Halt Pilot Plan
Rochester acknowledged that the pilot would not be possible if buses were at capacity. She noted that the logical conclusion is that the community would need more buses while Stagecoach’s contract would need to be expanded to provide the additional capacity. A spokesperson for Stagecoach stated that the company welcomed initiatives encouraging public transport use and recognized the potential benefits of making bus travel more accessible, but emphasized that it was important for any proposal to introduce free bus travel to be carefully considered to ensure that sufficient capacity is available across the network to accommodate the additional passenger demand such a scheme could generate.
Our priority is to ensure that bus services remain reliable, accessible and able to meet the needs of all passengers, particularly on routes that already experience high levels of demand,
The scrapped transport proposal was one of 30 changes put forward to next year’s budget, scheduled for consideration on Tuesday.