More than 13,000 journeys were taken using the on demand YorBus service in its first year of operation.
Data from North Yorkshire County Council showed that 13,426 journeys had been taken by the end of July, requested by 850 riders.
In July 2022, there was an average of 51 trips per day.
The bus service serves an area to the north and west of Ripon including Masham, West Tanfield and Bedale.
The pilot scheme, started in July 2021, has now been extended for another year.
The statistics are included in a report on the service’s first year which will be discussed by the council’s Skipton and Ripon area committee next week.
Increasing journey numbers
Journey numbers have gradually increased since the start of the year.
Despite this, the council almost doubled fares for the service at the start of August to £2 for an adult and £1 for a child.
The number of journeys is also roughly seven times the council’s target for the scheme.
It initially hoped that 885 journeys would have been taken after six months.
However, the Transport Action Network has accused the council of setting the target deliberately low.
YorBus covers 217 square kilometres to the north and west of Ripon
Councillor Keane Duncan, the county council’s executive member for transport, celebrated YorBus’s first year in July. He said:
“YorBus has proved incredibly popular since its launch in July 2021, with extremely positive feedback from users.
“We will continue to review this demand-responsive service to help us explore rolling out YorBus to other parts of the county.”
The report also stated that almost half of users would drive if the service was not available. It argued:
“This shows that YorBus is helping to encourage North Yorkshire residents away from the private motor vehicle and onto public transport.”
£229,000 has been allocated to the service for 2022/23.
Next steps
The council will now look at its future plans for on demand YorBus service.
This could include group discount tickets, a joint promotion campaign with the National Trust and investigating the viability of rolling out of YorBus to other parts of the county.
