Axed bus service for Ripon and Masham cost £15.57 per passenger

A picture has emerged of the scale of losses sunk on the axed flagship rural bus service for Ripon, Masham and Bedale.

North Yorkshire Council announced last week it would abandon the YorBus on-demand bus service, which it had hoped to roll out to numerous rural areas poorly served by buses. The 14-seater minibuses will cease to operate at the end of the month.

The council claimed future transport services would be shaped by lessons learned from YorBus.

But councillors from across the political spectrum sounded a less upbeat tone about the outcome of the pilot at a meeting of the council’s Skipton and Ripon area constituency committee yesterday.

A report to councillors revealed Yorbus had seen a further £224,000 of taxpayers money pumped into it after disappointing first year figures.

Despite changes to try to improve uptake, the high-profile service carried just 14,208 passengers over 12 months, at an average cost per passenger of £15.57 across the year.

This is significantly higher than that for fixed timetable bus routes in the area which are around £6.50 per passenger.

Sustainability warnings

Within months of YorBus being launched, public transport experts had said it was unsustainable and needed a major overhaul to attract more passengers.

The authority’s hopes of extending demand-responsive transport were dealt a further blow last year when the government rejected the county’s £116m Bus Back Better bid in its entirety, citing a “lack of ambition” — a claim the council has rejected.

The committee heard how YorBus had often been seen driving around with few or no passengers. One Conservative member claimed following disappointing YorBus figures for the first year, officers had worked “to try and prove the concept”.

Cllr Andrew Murday

Cllr Andrew Murday

Cllr Andrew Murday, a Liberal Democrat who represents Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale,  questioned why the council had not abandoned the trial after the first year, adding:

“Obviously the project has failed and there are better ways of providing public transport.”

The meeting heard the trial had been extended for a further year largely to test if changes to the booking system improved take-up.

Councillors were told while the development of public transport was a key part of the council’s economic development plan, particularly to boost tourism, more rural bus services, including a regular service to the Yorkshire Dales gateway town of Grassington, were under threat.

Some councillors suggested the council should look to facilitate taxi or car-sharing through localised social media accounts before others pointed towards passenger safety concerns.

Residents ‘horrified by the cost’

Calling for more innovative solutions, Settle and Penyghent councillor David Staveley said:

“Most residents who don’t use these public service buses, and don’t have any inclination to, would be quite horrified by the cost per journey that this has incurred. It’s a lot of money that’s coming out of the public purse.”

However, other councillors argued the reason behind residents’ reliance on  cars was due to the lack of a sufficiently frequent and direct bus service.

The meeting heard villages without public transport were being “condemned to death”, as planning rules banned building “unsustainable” homes, while post-pandemic many of the county’s elderly residents had not gone back to using buses.

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Referring to the trial, executive member for culture and housing, Cllr Simon Myers, said:

“It’s regrettable it hasn’t worked, but somehow we have to change people’s attitudes to public transport. How do we encourage the public back to using the services that are there? That’s a real challenge.”

Helmsley Conservative councillor George Jabbour said he believed from next year the incoming mayoral combined authority would have the additional funding needed to invest in public transport.

Cllr Jabbour added:

“This experience should not make the council less bold in its drive to explore new creative and innovative ways to improve public transport in our county.”

Man suffers serious head injuries in minibus collision in Knaresborough

A man in his 70s suffered a serious head injury this morning when he was involved in a collision with a minibus on the A59 in Knaresborough.

North Yorkshire Police said in a statement this afternoon that the pedestrian was taken to hospital. It added:

“He was conscious and breathing following the incident.”

The A59 remains closed between Bogs Lane in Harrogate and Long Walk in Knaresborough.

The incident occurred near Forest Lane Head at about 9.30am.

Diversions have been put in place while collision investigators examine the scene.

The police statement said:

“Witnesses or motorists with dash-cam footage are asked to contact North Yorkshire Police on 101, select option 1, and speak to the Force Control Room. Please quote reference NYP-31032022-0111.

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