£½m bus cash injection but services still at risk

Jun 21 2008 by nick lavigueur, Hudd Sat

NEGLECTED rural bus services are set to benefit from a £½m council cash boost.

With councillors besieged with complaints and protests about privately run bus companies’ declining services, Kirklees has stepped in to prop up the soon-to-be axed Colne Valley Taxibus.

Councillors also announced plans to introduce two new services, in Denby Dale and the Holme Valley.

But the future of all three services will still hang in the balance as the council cash comes on the proviso that enough passengers make use of the subsidised services during their initial six-month trials.

If fewer than seven passengers travel on each journey then the axe will still fall.

But if the trials are successful the services could be extended and taken over by Metro indefinitely, leaving the council with a large pot of cash, almost £400,000 to spend on other rural transport initiatives.

The trials of the much threatened Taxibus and the other new routes, Denby Dale to Barnsley Hospital and the Holme Valley loop, begin next month.

Service 95, Denby Dale to Barnsley Hospital, is the biggest winner, receiving more than £50,000, two thirds of which is from Metro, West Yorkshire’s public transport regulator.

As reported last month, the hourly service was first trialled as a Christmas bus and will run six-days a week from Skelmanthorpe.

If successful, Kirklees will pick up the £51,000 bill for another six months after which Metro will start funding the service.

The Holme Valley route, the H8/H9, will run hourly serving Holmfirth Bus Station, the Holme Valley Memorial Hospital and Hepworth.

The Colne Valley Taxibus will continue operating its existing route connecting Wilberlee, Pole Moor and Scapegoat Hill to Slaithwaite and Outlane. It also deviates from its route to collect or drop off passengers and during off-peak times it can be called for pre-arranged pick-ups.

The Holme Valley and Colne Valley routes will both be immediately adopted by Metro if their trial periods are deemed successes.

Supporter of the Taxibus, Clr Nicola Turner, has twice featured in the Examiner fighting to save the service.

She said: “I’m very pleased the service has been saved for the next six months, but there is still a long way to go so we’re not resting on our laurels.

“This is a “use it lose it” situation and we’ve got to get people on board using the Taxibus as much as possible.

“Personally, I am going to make sure that this service is advertised widely and properly to homes across the valley as it plays such an important role linking up shopping centres and essential services with outlying villages and homes, helping to keep people mobile, connected and independent.

“And I can only see it becoming more important the way things are going with petrol prices. I don’t want to see older people and those on lower incomes being isolated because this sort of service is allowed to disappear.

“It really is a vital feature of community life. We’re six months and counting, the real fight starts now!”

Transport chief, Clr David Hall, said the remaining cash could be used to provide other vital rural transport links and cited the upcoming tram-train trial on the Penistone Line as a project that could benefit.

Clr Hall added that his aspiration was to launch a comprehensive rural bus network much like Harrogate’s Little Red Bus service, a scheme that unites and integrates community and public transport and allows existing private operators to work together to provide cost effective services.