TWO more bus services are to be axed in a bid to make Swindon’s network more commercially viable.

Thamesdown Transport is making a raft of changes from January, including cutting the 30 service, which runs from Fleming Way through Walcot East and Parks to Great Western Hospital, and the 20B running through Greenbridge, Covingham, Eldene, Liden, Nationwide HQ, and Old Town to the town centre.

The 16, the main hospital bus from Fleming Way, will also see its frequency reduced on weekday evenings from every 15 minutes to 30 minutes, with the same happening throughout the day on Saturdays to make it the same as the Sunday service.

The 20, which runs from Swindon to the hospital via Gorse Hill, Kingsdown, Lower Stratton, Greenbridge, Covingham, Eldene, and Liden, will be reduced on weekdays from every 30 minutes to 45 minutes, with the Saturday service only running between the town centre, Kingsdown and Greenbridge every hour.

The decision, which follows discussions with the council and hospital trust, comes ahead of the publication of a borough-wide bus strategy, and has been made because section 106 subsidies provided to support various hospital buses since the hospital opened are due to come to an end in December.

Coun Keith Williams said the decision would save the council £45,000 per year from the revenue budget, plus the £545,000 the authority would otherwise have to find to keep the routes running as they are once the subsidies end.

He claimed the vast majority of passengers travelling to the hospital would see little change, as they tended to use the 16, but others would have to walk further to the bus stop or take another bus into the town centre before catching a 16.

He added: “Bus services are being protected now because they’ll be running on a commercial footing. They aren’t artificially assisted.

“And what the council and the bus companies have done is they’ve worked to ensure that customers are receiving a service that’s as close to what they were receiving before as possible but on sustainable buses.

“Where there’s services which aren’t frequently used, the frequency of these have changed because if we can take a bus out of the routes because you are reducing the frequency, that can have a significant impact on the savings on that route and make it more commercially viable.”

The changes will come exactly a year after previous changes to three services, which provoked a public outcry.

Sherry Waldon, 91, of Park North, who campaigned against those changes, said: “I think they’re saying all the time that they’re protecting bus services but these cuts show that they aren’t protecting services to the people who are in the most need to have public transport.

“The ending of the service 30 will leave us nothing to the hospital at all from Cavendish Square, which is the hub of two estates – Park North and Park South.”