New town bus service hailed as success story

The praise follows a consultant's report on its performance so far.

Welcoming the report at last week's planning meeting, chairman Coun Noel Roberts said: "I think the new bus service is excellent. I've seen people queuing at the bus stops."

But some concerns were expressed that Service 600, which is operated as a partnership between DRM Coaches and the Countryside Agency, was still not attracting enough passengers in some target areas.

Coun Keith Francis said: "The bus is getting more use but where it's least used is on the New Mills estate, where people have not had a bus service before, and perhaps they need to adapt and get used to using it."

Only 14.3 per cent of tickets were to or from the New Mills estate, compared with 62.7 per cent to and from Deer Park.

A spot survey for the report was carried out by consultant Gareth Davies between February 2 and 8.

Statistics show that passengers made an average of just under 45 individual trips a day, though the figure may have been driven down by inclement weather on February 2 and localised flooding on the Little Marcle Road on February 4.

Pensioners, some 39.8 per cent of passengers, used the service most, followed by the 16-25 age group, which accounted for 29.1 per cent of passengers.

Most journeys, 52.4 per cent of them, were made to the shops, with social journeys, 19.4 per cent, accounting for second place.

Mr Davies said: "It's encouraging to observe a mix of age groups using this service. Shopping trips represent some 94 passengers week. With a modest average spend of £10 per person per trip, over a 50-week period, this indicates a retail spend of £47,000 per annum in the town centre and must be an important part of its vitality."

The service has been largely unsuccessful in attracting passengers to and from work. Mr Davies said that connections with afternoon trains were disappointing and should be monitored further.