A national bus strategy is urgently needed to bring an end to the closure of routes, many of which provide a vital community service and are crucial to easing congestion and reducing emissions, according to one of the country’s largest transport groups.

While the Department for Transport has clear strategies for rail, roads, aviation, cycling and walking, it does not have one for bus services, which play a “critical role in helping to boost economic growth – providing greater access to jobs and education, tackling air pollution and congestion, as well as addressing rising rates of loneliness and social exclusion”, says the Go-Ahead Group. It wants local authorities to be given targets for hitting bus journey times in a bid to get more people using buses, which account for six out of 10 of all public journeys.

The company, which is London’s largest bus operator and has interests around the UK, makes the call in a submission to parliament’s transport select committee, which has launched an inquiry into the future of bus services. It comes as new figures show the price of bus tickets has continued to rise.

Citing statistics from the Campaign for Better Transport, which estimates 3,347 bus services have been reduced or withdrawn across England and Wales since 2010, Go-Ahead warns of the impact on vulnerable households if more routes were to close. Most of the routes that have been affected are among the 10% that are subsidised.

“Since austerity kicked in in 2010 those services supported by local authorities have tended to drop away,” said Martin Dean, managing director of bus development at Go-Ahead. “They are vulnerable to local authority spending cuts because there is not a statutory requirement for councils to provide these services.”

Since 2011, local authority funding for buses has fallen by 46%. Over the same period, increased congestion has also had a major effect on bus routes. For example, Go-Ahead says a round trip from Oxford rail station to Blackbird Leys took 72 minutes in 2014 but now takes 88 minutes.

“We need to find a way to make a better allocation of road space,” Dean said. “It’s absolutely critical. At the moment what we’re doing in urban areas is adding to our costs just to maintain the existing times and existing frequencies because traffic congestion is so bad.”

Slow-moving traffic results in an increase in emissions. “When traffic speeds are reduced by around 50%, then air quality tends to deteriorate by about 50%,” Dean said. “Everyone is stuck in traffic, engines are not working efficiently and exhausts are churning out dirty diesel and petrol.”

Funding for local authority supported buses has halved in the last eight years Darren Shirley, campaign for Better Transport

The company suggests that a relatively “quick win” in the battle against congestion would be the adoption of road access charging for utility companies.

But there are concerns that buses remain a “Cinderella” form of transport in the eyes of government and local authorities, and that continued neglect will disproportionately hit older people in isolated communities.

Darren Shirley, chief executive of Campaign for Better Transport, backed the call for a national strategy. “Funding for local authority supported buses has halved in the last eight years. We need the government to introduce a national long-term coach and bus strategy which would help bring together funding and policies to reverse this decline.”

A new generation of electric buses could help transform inner cities but complex problems to do with charging also boost the argument for a national strategy, Go-Ahead believes.

A voter backlash has reversed cuts to bus services in Kent and Norfolk, but in many areas routes continue to be withdrawn while prices are rising. Recent figures from DfT show that local bus journeys in England have fallen by 1.7% since last year, while fares have risen 2.2% in urban areas and 6.6% in non-metropolitan areas.