Great Western Coffee Shop

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Buses are a key element of public transport in Wiltshire, with more journeys by bus than by train (through people cover a higher mileage by train).

At the beginning of this year, Wiltshire Council ran a consultation of the funding of supported bus services (that's about a half off the services in the county) looking to cut subsidy - either by 50% or (one of the options) by 100% which inevitably would result in dramatic service losses.   The council suggested the subsidy cut in this way would lead to end to virtually all evening and Sunday services, reduction of supported inter-town services from hourly to 2-hourly, and reduction of town and rural services to just a handful a day.  But since then, the Bus Services Bill has been published - with the intent of providing alternative ways forward for an efficient and prospering public transport network - for those councils which wish to take it up.

In many ways, Wiltshire is far more fortunate than many rural counties because the network still largely exists, rather than having been slashed in the last few years as has happened in so many places.   So the county does have a bedrock - a user base and bus operators - which can develop together the network approach offered by the bill.

Question.  Should Wiltshire Council open the door to opportunities offered by the Bus Services Bill for its future public transport network, or should it go with one of the options offered in the consultation on purely the older ways of doing things, closing the door on new alternatives which have been designed for exactly the sort of issue we have here?

For "Catch the Bus week", the Option 24/7 team (http://option247.uk) has launched a mini-survey to see what the public think in answer to this question.  If you use public transport that makes calls in Wiltshire, please take a look at the survey and give your thoughts [here] (http://option247.uk/survey)

Want to read more? Press release: http://option247.uk/surveypressrelease.pdf

That hand symbol to me is a 'stop' signal, not a 'use' symbol - just sayin'

Indeed ... but its the standard logo for "Catch the Bus" week ... and you probably DO want the bus to stop.   Ever had a bus drive past you when you wanted to get on?  Most irritating!

I suggested we should use a chap with a net in our promotion for "Catch the bus" week, but was voted down.