Bus campaigners float plan to save Shrewsbury park-and-ride service set for the axe

Bus users believe they have worked out a plan to save a Shrewsbury park-and-ride service that is set to be cut within months.

From November, the Meole Brace service will be withdrawn due to having the lowest passenger numbers of all three park and ride services in the town.

During the past year, the service has carried around 135,000 passenger journeys, compared to 151,000 at Harlescott and 164,000 at Oxon.

Therefore, Shropshire Council decided to withdraw the Meole Brace service as part of a retendering process of bus services in the county.

But the decision has caused anger among many people, with a petition to keep the service attracting more than 2,750 online signatures.

Campaign group Bus Users Shropshire said it is unrealistic to expect users of the Meole Brace service to transfer to the Oxon or Harlescott sites.

Therefore it is proposing that the six buses needed to run a 12-minute interval service on the Harlescott and Oxon routes be redeployed to run on all three routes at 20-minute intervals, as they did before June 2025.

This, it says, would void the loss of receipts on the Meole Brace route, which would exceed the gain in receipts from running the other routes every 12 minutes.

Spokesperson Tony Burton said: "This would clearly be slightly less convenient for the users of the Harlescott and Oxon routes, but crucially it would avoid depriving residents living south of Shrewsbury of their entire service, the loss of which would be bound to cause additional town centre congestion and pollution."

The proposal has backing of Councillor Chris Naylor, an independent member who is chair of the finance and improvement overview and scrutiny committee.

He said: "I totally understand this council is in a very difficult place financially, with Government cutting millions from its Rural Services and Public Transport grants. So I completely understand the need to look for cuts.

"But I have to say I believe cutting Meole Brace Park and Ride is wrong.

"I've had dozens of parish councils and residents express their objections, and no doubt it will hurt Shrewsbury businesses too. And now here's an excellent idea to keep the service going - I urge cabinet to reconsider."

Councillor Rob Wilson, portfolio holder for transport and regeneration, said that based on the current network, the annual cost of operating the Shrewsbury park-and-ride services is around £1.5 million per year.

Comparing the three months immediately before and after the timetable changed last June, he said the average monthly passenger journeys across the three sites increased from around 34,500 journeys a month to 38,000. The average monthly on-board revenue, meanwhile, jumped from £28,000 per month to £37,000.

"These increases in both passenger numbers and revenue were considered as part of the wider review," said Councillor Wilson.

"However, the challenge facing the council was not simply one of patronage, but one of affordability.

"It is important to emphasise that the decision regarding Meole Brace was not based solely on the cost of that individual service.

"The council's Local Bus Retendering Programme 2026 reviewed 21 supported bus services across Shropshire against a backdrop of significantly increased operating costs and reduced funding available to support local bus services.

"As part of that process, alternative service levels and frequencies were considered. However, the review concluded that it was no longer affordable to continue funding three separate park-and-ride services in Shrewsbury whilst also protecting essential rural and inter-urban services elsewhere in the county.

"Cabinet was therefore required to consider whether limited funding should continue to support three separate park-and-ride services in Shrewsbury, or be used to protect essential public transport links elsewhere in the county, including services serving communities where there is no realistic alternative transport option.

"Whilst I appreciate that many residents disagree with the outcome, cabinet was required to consider the sustainability of the supported transport network across the county as a whole and reached its decision in that wider county-wide context."