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Breaking Transport News!
Confirmed: Bredwardine & Brobury Bus Service 448 to be Cancelled
It has been confirmed by Jim Davies, Public Transport Manager, Herefordshire Council Planning & Transportation, that Bus Service 448,
operated
by Nick Maddy (09.55 Bredwardine to Hereford, 13.00 Hereford to Bredwardine and 17.20 Clehonger
to Bredwardine) will only operate now on Wednesdays and Saturdays - effective 31st August 2008.
This Service, which historically ran only on market days, was improved to daily operation a few years ago when the council was awarded a government grant through the “Rural Bus Challenge” competition. The purpose of the grant was to allow for rural bus services to be improved on an experimental basis to see if a better service could generate sufficient additional patronage to sustain the improvement when the grant had been used up.
The government grant has now been spent and the Council has no replacement funding available to maintain the service, which therefore has to return to market-day only operation.
The Council already has a “target” for passenger numbers, which is determined by the cost of providing the service. In the case of Bus Service 448, Mr Davis believes that to maintain the daily service would require every bus, every day, to carry at least 10 passengers. If this happened, the Council would still be faced with the problem of identifying a source of funding to replace the now expired grant.
The daily services (Mon - Fri)
run by Yeoman Canyon (07.09 Bredwardine to Hereford and 16.34 Clehonger to Bredwardine) are
not affected.
Over 60's are encouraged to get their free national bus passes and start using them
in order to safeguard the remaining services. For enquiries on local buses call Philip Bauer on 01981500398.
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