Bus services in Bristol operated by First West of England are to be reduced to a Saturday service from next Monday as passenger numbers continue to decline due to the coronavirus outbreak. Train services run by Great Western Railways will also be reduced from Monday by around 50%.
First West of England today pledged to sustain services for those needing to travel across the city and the wider region. The move to its Saturday timetable will take about 10% of is buses off the road. First operates around 400 buses in and around Bristol. 
Reports suggest that bus travel has slumped by around 30% in the Bristol area over the past week as commuters either work from home or find other ways of getting to work. However, with schools across the city remaining open, buses are still busy at peak times.
First has stepped up its cleaning regime to make sure the parts of its buses that passengers are likely to touch, such as grab rails and seat backs, are being cleaned daily.
First said it had written to the local Traffic Commissioner, who is responsible for licensing and regulating passenger transport in the region, about its intentions as well as West of England Combined Authority Mayor Tim Bowles and Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees.
It is also working closely with its trade unions and said it was doing “everything possible” to deploy staff across its operations to minimise the impact.
First West of England managing director James Freeman, pictured, said: “The government has made it clear that it now wants people, wherever possible, to work from home and avoid any non-essential travel and contact.
“The number of people travelling has reduced significantly and is continuing to diminish, making this an extremely dynamic situation which is changing day to day, hour to hour. 
“By way of bringing some order to the situation we are looking to reduce our Monday-to-Friday services to a Saturday timetable. This will mean that about 10% of our fleet will be stood down.
“Where we can, we will add extra buses into the morning rush hour to ensure that workers are catered for.
“It’s important to emphasise that this is a fast-moving and unprecedented challenge and we are monitoring new developments as they happen and will respond accordingly and keep all of our customers informed of any further changes.”
Mr Freeman said the decision to move to a Saturday service had not been taken lightly.
“However, with more and more people choosing to stay at home, this is our best option to ensure services continue running and are as close to ‘business as usual’ as we can possibly make them,” he said.
“One way or another, we will endeavor to keep services running through this unprecedented time of uncertainty.”
The Department for Transport (DfT) said demand for rail travel had declined by up to 69% on some routes.
As a result, Great Western Trains will cut services from Monday, including reducing the timetable on its Bristol-London Paddington trains from every 20 minutes to one an hour.
It will also suspend its Night Riviera sleeper service between London Paddington and Penzance from this evening “to protect our customers and colleagues”.
Great Western Trains has also been carrying out enhanced cleaning and hygiene regimes with full cleaning of its trains overnight.
