BUS passengers across the region face a bleak future of massive fare hikes and "vanishing" services, an inquiry by MPs was told yesterday.

Council chiefs and bus firms joined forces to warn of a "perfect financial storm" about to strike, because of simultaneous cuts to town hall funding, bus grants and concessionary fare schemes.

Fares in some areas - including Teesside and North Yorkshire - will raise by an eye-watering ten per cent this year, one bus giant told the transport select committee.

Meanwhile, rural services are disappearing rapidly. More than 70 routes are expected to be scrapped or reduced in County Durham, with nearly 30 services under threat in North Yorkshire.

Durham has also backed plans to charge the elderly and disabled 50p for local bus travel before 9.30am, on weekdays - and free school bus passes are being lined up for the axe in both areas.

Giving evidence yesterday, the managing director of Arriva Bus UK - which operates most services in the North-East and North Yorkshire - told MPs: "It's death by a thousand cuts."

Mike Cooper picked out Teesside as an area where fares would have to rise by six to seven per cent - on top of the "normal" inflationary rise of two to three per cent.

And, warning of disappearing services, he added: "That could be frequencies being pared back - so you move from a ten minute to a 12 minute service - or it could be routes being cut.

"It's happening as we find that what are marginally profitable routes will become deeply unprofitable in the future."

Richard Owens, assistant director of transport at North Yorkshire County Council, added to the gloom, telling the MPs: "we are conscious of a perfect financial storm."

Town halls have suffered cuts of up to 28 per cent in transport grants, while the fuel subsidy paid to bus operators will shrink by 20 per cent from next January.

* To read a full report, see The Northern Echo today.