A review of Bedford borough’s rural bus services has shown inefficiencies, the deputy mayor has said.
But when the routes become more efficient money will be available to provide a “wider and better service”.
Bedford’s deputy mayor, councillor James Weir, said the borough’s Conservative administration believes that there hasn’t been a review of Bedford borough’s bus services since 2011.
“Especially the rural bus services, which are kind of key because they’re the ones we spend a lot of money on supporting,” he said.
“I was determined that we had to have a proper look at what we were doing on buses.”
The review found, for example, that the number 25 Service at Carlton had 600 journeys in September, but only had 270 passengers across the whole month.
And nobody from Willington, Great Barford or Cople used the 27 Service for the whole month.
“So we’re saying let’s re-jig [the buses],” councillor Weir said.
“Look to see if there is a specific time when passengers get on, and where is a specific time when they don’t.
“Because if [nobody] gets on from 10 o’clock to four o’clock, then, why are we running buses?
“The operator can be using them somewhere else as long as we cover the period when we know there are passengers.
“It may well be that if we get some data that the operator can’t afford to put on the bus, or maybe we could put another bus on.
“I know it sounds simple to say, but it’s a fact,” he said.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
