Cuts in council funding for bus services are creating a “crisis” leaving people stranded and unable to travel particularly in rural areas, campaigners warned yesterday.

The Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) revealed responses to Freedom of Information requests on reductions in public transport subsidies due to coalition government cuts, which showed that half of local authorities in England and Wales axed funding for buses in 2014-15.

Subsidies have been slashed by 15 per cent so far — with worse to come — and CBT said more than 2,000 routes had been axed or reduced.

More cuts could leave rural communities isolated, including the Derbyshire Dales constituency of Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.

“Year-on-year cuts to budgets mean entire networks have now disappeared, leaving many communities with little public transport and in some cases none at all,” said CBT’s Martin Abrams.

“It’s very worrying that further steep cuts in budgets are threatened next year and beyond. The government must introduce new initiatives which recognise the vital social, economic and environmental role buses play.”

Joe Vinson of the National Union of Students said the cuts were hitting students in further education because public transport could be the difference between lower-income students getting to college or not.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash added: “This shocking new report lifts the lid on the trail of misery left strewn across the country as multi-million-pound cuts to bus services condemn hundreds of thousands of people to lives of isolation and imprisonment in their own homes.”