New rural public transport company provides lifeline in Northumberland
It is one of the most beautiful and unspoiled parts of England, with
rolling moorland, ruined castles and postcard-pretty villages. The
Coquetdale valley in Northumberland national park has long had it all –
except public transport.
All that changed last Autumn, when a local man fulfilled a life-long ambition to launch his own bus company to link up the villages of his valley, providing a “lifeline” to pensioners and teens without driving licences who were otherwise stuck in their homes.
All that changed last Autumn, when a local man fulfilled a life-long ambition to launch his own bus company to link up the villages of his valley, providing a “lifeline” to pensioners and teens without driving licences who were otherwise stuck in their homes.
Bus driver Steve Hurst, 29, set up Spirit Buses,
having spotted a “gap that’s long needed filling”. Growing up in the
market town of Rothbury it was impossible to go to the cinema in nearby
Alnwick without getting a lift from his parents. Though just 12 miles
away as the crow flies, the journey by bus took a whopping
two-and-a-half hours, requiring a change at Morpeth in completely the
wrong direction. Friends in the hamlets of Snitter, Alwinton and
Harbottle weren’t even that lucky – no buses at all ran through their
villages.
None of the big bus companies seemed interested in improving the
services, Hurst, however, was undeterred by the perilous finances involved
in rural transport. “It’s a public service,” he explained – albeit one
which receives no public subsidies from Northumberland county council,
unlike Arriva and other big firms which receive tens of thousands each
year. “It was never going to make me millions. I just wanted to revive
the valley and connect all these communities up again.”
With just £60,000 amassed from bank loans and personal savings,
Spirit’s two buses made their maiden voyages in September. Now, there is
a direct service between Rothbury and Alnwick, which takes just 20
minutes, the last bus timed so that customers can watch a play or a film
without missing their ride home. Three days a week, a circular service
connects Rothbury with Alwinton and all the villages in between on three
well-spaced loops, recently voted one of the top ten most scenic bus
routes in Britain by a coach magazine.
The services cover their costs, insists Hurst. And they don’t just
carry passengers. “We’ve had cats, dogs, push-bikes, parcels, all sorts
of things.” Recently a rural producer in Elsdon asked the driver to
ferry boxes of marmalade to Rothbury shops. The buses are spotless but
homely. Children delight in seeing the buses back at the depot each
night, their destination boards changed to read: “Sorry I’m Off To Bed – Zzzzzzzz.”
Hurst’s customers love him. “This service has changed my life, I no
longer feel trapped and isolated, it’s given me the freedom to be
independent again to go shopping and visit friends and family who have
had to move away due to lack of transport,” said one comment on Spirit’s
Facebook page. Hurst must have received more Christmas presents than
anyone else in Coquetdale.
Local councillor, Steven Bridgett, 27, said he would be encouraging
Northumberland county council to consider Hurst when other subsidised
routes come up for tender in the new year. But he conceded that the
council is unlikely to be able to subsidise Spirit in the future. “To be
completely blunt, it’s more a time of contraction than expansion,” he
said.
According to the Campaign for Better Transport (CfBT),
Northumberland county council has cut bus funding by 19% (£400,000)
since 2011, reducing some services that connected towns. Martin Abrams,
public transport campaigner for CfBT said: “Cuts in bus funding have
left many communities cut off completely with massive long-term impacts.
So it’s very welcome to see entrepreneurs stepping into the breach and
providing a viable bus service. This isn’t an isolated case – there are
other small operators taking the place of bigger companies – but they
will need help from councils and the government if they are to survive
long term. Underfunding of the pensioners’ free travel is a threat to
these and other rural bus services. Towns like Rothbury are also typical
of places where if you don’t have a car you can’t get around.
“Government must address this and invest in supporting these
operators. After recently committing to spend £15bn on new roads, it’s
obviously not a question of funding shortfalls, but a question of
priorities.”
Bridgett has nothing but praise for Hurst: “I’m probably going to get
in trouble for saying this but I’ll say it anyway: one of the things
you tend to get with the bigger bus companies is that as they grow, they
forget the little people. Steve provides a tailor-made, personal
service. I don’t just salute his entrepreneurial spirit but also his
social spirit. It’s not just a business venture for him, but a social
service for the Coquetdale valley.”
http://www.spiritbuses.co.uk/
SEE ALSO THE LATEST ON THE NEW FOCUS FLICKR SITE
The final set of images of the London Bus Sculpture Trails has been placed in an album on the new Focus Flickr site. This time they are from the Croydon area of south London and have once more been provided courtesy of John Parkin. The album can now be viewed by clicking here
http://www.spiritbuses.co.uk/
SEE ALSO THE LATEST ON THE NEW FOCUS FLICKR SITE
The final set of images of the London Bus Sculpture Trails has been placed in an album on the new Focus Flickr site. This time they are from the Croydon area of south London and have once more been provided courtesy of John Parkin. The album can now be viewed by clicking here
Accompanying detail from the Transport for London website can also be viewed by clicking here