I’ve been at a SWestrans meeting this morning and root and branch review is to be undertaken on all routes in Dumfries and Galloway. Tenders are all coming in much higher than before for a number of reasons so we have to come up with better ways to provide the same cover. Transport is an important aspect of life both in the towns and the more rural parts of the region and a sensible, sustainable solution has to be found.
I certainly hope so. One of the things I would like to see is better regulation of the buses so that the services on offer can be controlled better. We won’t get people out of their cars unless public transport is improved. I’d also like to see more regular train services to the region
I am very keen on protecting transport. I have supported a couple of initiatives, one about pooling resources with the NHS and Ambulance Services to provide better transport for people needing it for health purposes, and the other is a European study in two similar rural regions like ours to compare best practice.
Here and now: when we can get accurate info via mobiles and realtime info at busstops, yes, that should improve it.
There will be pain tho. While i am sure we should protect bus services and community transport when both are contributing to a planned, needed, costed framework, some pet journeys might not be subsidised if they are not used enough, and there is an alternative.
You ask if it will improve. Let me put it this way, I shall not look to cuts in public transport to fill potholes. I shall also be pointing out that if three people travel on a bus from a village of one hundred souls, that’s three percent of the population. Three percent of a town of 40,000 would be 1,200 people. Do we make a fuss about a town service when there aren’t 1,200 on it? Nope.
Please don’t underestimate your power to influence. Speak to the Council’s Passenger Transport Unit on
0303 333 3000, e-mail your councillors, tell them how to improve the service. Complain if buses don’t come, or are early (a real crime that one) or drivers are rude. Don’t bother with the bus companies – it’s the Council who is the customer on your behalf and can ‘fine’ the companies when they don’t perform to contract.
By the way Sarah, I am on a bit of a bus shelter crusade too. Some are dirty and badly positioned against the weather. But you have no idea of the problems we have getting community councils (who don’t often use buses)
to accept shelters being put up.
I for one want it to, but it won’t happen for a few years and might get worse before it gets better. The country is so short of money that public services like buses won’t be improved for a while. I totally sympathise- I live in New Abbey, my wife doesn’t drive and relies on the buses when I’m not around to drive her into town.
I’ve been at a SWestrans meeting this morning and root and branch review is to be undertaken on all routes in Dumfries and Galloway. Tenders are all coming in much higher than before for a number of reasons so we have to come up with better ways to provide the same cover. Transport is an important aspect of life both in the towns and the more rural parts of the region and a sensible, sustainable solution has to be found.
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I certainly hope so. One of the things I would like to see is better regulation of the buses so that the services on offer can be controlled better. We won’t get people out of their cars unless public transport is improved. I’d also like to see more regular train services to the region
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I am very keen on protecting transport. I have supported a couple of initiatives, one about pooling resources with the NHS and Ambulance Services to provide better transport for people needing it for health purposes, and the other is a European study in two similar rural regions like ours to compare best practice.
Here and now: when we can get accurate info via mobiles and realtime info at busstops, yes, that should improve it.
There will be pain tho. While i am sure we should protect bus services and community transport when both are contributing to a planned, needed, costed framework, some pet journeys might not be subsidised if they are not used enough, and there is an alternative.
You ask if it will improve. Let me put it this way, I shall not look to cuts in public transport to fill potholes. I shall also be pointing out that if three people travel on a bus from a village of one hundred souls, that’s three percent of the population. Three percent of a town of 40,000 would be 1,200 people. Do we make a fuss about a town service when there aren’t 1,200 on it? Nope.
Please don’t underestimate your power to influence. Speak to the Council’s Passenger Transport Unit on
0303 333 3000, e-mail your councillors, tell them how to improve the service. Complain if buses don’t come, or are early (a real crime that one) or drivers are rude. Don’t bother with the bus companies – it’s the Council who is the customer on your behalf and can ‘fine’ the companies when they don’t perform to contract.
By the way Sarah, I am on a bit of a bus shelter crusade too. Some are dirty and badly positioned against the weather. But you have no idea of the problems we have getting community councils (who don’t often use buses)
to accept shelters being put up.
0
I for one want it to, but it won’t happen for a few years and might get worse before it gets better. The country is so short of money that public services like buses won’t be improved for a while. I totally sympathise- I live in New Abbey, my wife doesn’t drive and relies on the buses when I’m not around to drive her into town.
0