Dan Norris, the West of England Metro Mayor, floated the idea in a meeting with Bath and North East Somerset councillors on Monday about tackling the problems with the region's bus service. Last month, the council passed a motion calling on him to do more to protect bus routes.

Mr Norris told councillors that the issues were mainly due to a lack of drivers. He said: "In our region, there is between a 200 and 300 shortage of bus drivers. It's a big number.

"And if you think that bus drivers work something like 50 hours a week on average, you can do the maths and work out how many thousands of hours a month we are short of bus drivers."

The Metro Mayor added that new solutions had to be found and said: "What about all the students? We have a massive student population in our region compared to a lot of other places."

He added: "Why can't we put together a package that says to those students: 'why aren't you bus drivers when you're students here? Why don't you drive buses while you're here at term time and then when you go home for your vacation you drive buses there? And in the term we'll pay you this and we'll give you free transport the rest of the time.'"

Shaun Stephenson-McGall, councillor for Oldfield Park which includes Bath's student area, said: "A third of bus drivers in the city are providing a nearly 24/7 bus service to the student community […] Yet residents in Oldfield Park who rely on the service to get to Haycombe Cemetery or other services across the city or even in our rural areas in North East Somerset, don't get buses at all."

He added: "The universities might want to explore running their own bus services and have their students staffing those bus services for students, rather than all the resources of First in Bristol and in Bath prioritising those good 24/7 bus services for students."

Councillors also discussed making it easier for women to work as bus drivers and getting younger people to train as bus drivers after getting their driving licence. Another idea floated was making it possible for parish councils to put on required bus services and having businesses do the same for their employees

Mr Norris said: "When I was a kid, there used to be a lot of employers who provided public transport for their factory workers or hospital workers. And I do think we have to revisit that."