Vanishing buses

apricot do you live in Norfolk by any chance ...

This is one of the problems that we have taken into account when thinking about moving out of West London.. its so easy for something to happen that means one can no longer drive and then have to rely on public transport which sometimes is just a little better than non existent.
It must be very difficult.

Have been grounded due to only one car which OH needs to get to work not on a bus route,have not yet got bus pass and fares expensive as DGD (resident with us) also needs to get out of the village...we have scratch marks on the wall where I have climbed the walls through boredom.....

We used to live in a small village 9 miles out of town, it was lovely there, very quiet, but the bus service was terrible. We had a car, but then it was written off in an accident caused by an idiot, and we needed to get to work in the meantime, so moved into town to stay with friends. The buses were one each way on Wednesdays and Saturdays. After we moved they went down to just Saturday, and now there isn`t a bus at all. It doesn`t seem to occur to the powers that be that not everyone drives everywhere.

Apricot, a slight exaggeration ? I live in a village, but don't have a mansion or four cars.I live in a bungalow and we have one car only, but we are not marooned.Do you not drive? there are areas of the country, parts of Devon and Cornwall for example where buses are infrequent, but you know that when you buy a house there.Or are you saying there used to be regular buses from your village that now don't run?

Why are people in cities blamed for the poor state of rural public transport? I expect quite a lot of our MPs have country homes in addition to their London ones - but they probably never use public transport at either location.

I agree it's a disgrace that villages and small towns are facing reductions in their transport - it's happened where my mum lives (Suffolk). But if only a handful of people use the buses, it is unrealistic to expect a commercial operation to run them frequently. The only way this can happen is for the public transport system to be fully integrated throughout the country and treated as an essential public service rather than solely as a profit making business. That would require more public investment and subsidy - not, I feel, a very popular solution in the mostly Conservative rural areas of the country.

I live in a village and after an operation recently was unable to drive so had to take buses for doctor/hospital appointments, shopping etc. The buses run hourly and were at least half full or more. I noticed that most passengers (myself included) had free bus passes so I guess the service is heavily subsidised.
I also met several other villagers who I had previously not known so this was an extra bonus.
Maybe it's not so grim up north after all!!!

I live in a small village and we have no bus service at all, but we knew this when we moved here. There used to be a bus which ran once a week - but only in one direction, so it would take you out of the village but not bring you back!!! If the time came when I can no longer drive then I will have to sell up and move, something I don't want to do if it can be avoided. Yes, it would be lovely if there was a bus service through every little village in the countryside but I'm afraid that is just not practical.

It was the city-based government that was blamed, eloethan, not "people in cities" generally.

Our village bus service is one an hour, one every two hours on Sundays. One adjusts to it, I find, though it does mean better time planning. I'm always amazed how frequent buses are when I'm in a city

Even if you have buses now, it doesnt mean they are going to stay.
A company round our way went bust. Another company took over some of the routes and drivers, but not all.
Probably best not to assume that they are always going to be there.
And the governement may do something about free bus passes someday as well.

It's not only villages that suffer from poor transport links. Where we lived previously, in a large suburb four miles from the city centre, we saw our bus service cut to one bus, rather than a choice of two, which ran every hour and a half rather than every twenty minutes as it did previously. The early six o'clock bus which DH used to get to work was cut altogether leaving some people high and dry! There was no consultation. By that time he had retired or I would have had to drive him into town every day (which I frequently had to on the occasions when said bus did not turn up!). Here, where we now live much further out on the very edge of the city, buses run every ten minutes, or we have the tram which runs about the same.

Our village is too small to have anything like a proper bus service. In term time there are school buses, but otherwise, one bus in and out of town on a Weds and Sat are the extent of the service. We have one car, but if we became unable to drive we would have to move. As it is I cannot walk as far as the bus stop.

This is a much reduced service from when we moved here 20 years ago; but I do see the problem. It is only possible to run a service to such a small community if it is subsidised - no commercial operation could possibly sustain it. Bit of a Catch 22 really - people have cars and therefore few people use the buses, the service reduces, which means that more people have to have cars so the service becomes even less viable.......

The buses that do run are quite a social event - they go all round the Wrekin and take an eternity to get to town, stopping outside people's doors to pick them up. And the views on the route are fabulous.

We live 12 miles from the city in Lincolnshire. Our buses have been cut from two an hour to just the one. Still reasonable though , but takes more planning. Don't think about Sundays though! The problem is with the commuter buses. Just when one is needed for a 9 o'clock start, there isn't one. So you either have to be ridiculously early or late into work. (Now retired so not a problem for me, but is for others).

Re. old age bus pass. I think it would be short-sighted to cut them. Yes, I know they are a financial burden on the government but surely anything that encourages the more mature to keep active, mobile and interested for longer will have benefits to their health and so might actually save money for the NHS. Sometimes the bottom line is not always the most cost-effective in the long run.

We moved here five years ago and chose the location, in part, because there was a regular bus service nearby. Since then, it's been 'pruned' so much that the last bus back out of the nearest town is at 3.30pm! After that time you'd have to use a cab. We have a high proportion of mature residents in the area, so the bus is a lifeline. If cuts have to be made, it would seem more sensible to, perhaps, cut out one of the earlier buses and run one at 5.00pm, thus enabling people to spend the afternoon in town. This same service covers the hospital and station, so it's an important service.

tanith there is civilisation outside London! Lots of places have perfectly good transport links although perhaps not all night like in big cities. The other benefits far outweigh the very slight inconvenience some of us have.

We moved here from outer London when we retired and have met so many people who also lived in or near London and chose to move here. None of us would ever go back.

Ours is a small town about 8 miles from the nearest (small) city with a bus which runs timetabled at every 15 minutes but sometimes 2 come together! While we wait everyone is friendly and chatty and that sometimes carries on during the ride. The warmth of the people is something we could never have predicted.

If we want to go to a big city we have to take into account that the last train is about 10 pm but that is easy to deal with.

My complaint about the London based MPs is how often they talk about the Freedom Pass and whether the retired should get it. They think we all get it but it is only those in London.

Nonnie many of the London based MPs have no need to use public transport and if they do occasionally it is a novelty. If they did they would realise the price of tubes and buses and how crowded they are. Huge bills for black cabs are handed in by these MPs. I think that they should live like the rest of us and if in a small village with a poor bus service to be well aware of it and do something.

I am fortunate, living close to a bus route that goes to Heathrow every few minutes. That bus would be my main life line if I could no longer drive.

Totally agree with you Charley One of the reasons I don't go to London if I can avoid it is the crowded transport.

If we don't use it, we lose it, so we should all use village buses as much as possible( including those that pay I mean.) if we ever have to, we would move into a town and live as much in the centre as possible.

Part of my moan is the huge variation in public transport in different areas.
I don't live in a village but don't drive. Getting anywhere is getting harder all the time and, having got there, you are stranded for hours. There are almost no services in the afternoons as the buses are doing school runs.
If I want to visit a big town there is usually only one bus daily. I'm leaving my home town less and less because the buses are inconvenient or impossible. As for trains, you need a bus to reach a station.

If you have any complaints about Bus services go to the Bus Users UK website .
Or Campaign for better transport website.
Mick

The buses operate best in the most economically viable areas, having said that, as Michael says above, you could contact somebody, even your MP about the lack of transport, and if a group of you do that, so much the better.If you don't drive, then you can be cut off socially and in emergencies.
do you have friends/ neighbours to help out with lifts?

This thread should be read by anyone thinking of moving in retirement. It must be terrible if you rely on public transport and there is none. LAs have different priorities and we are pretty lucky here. We also have Community Action which helps people get to hospitals etc and is run by volunteer drivers.