In London you may wait forever for a bus, then two arrive together. And so it is here with news regarding ‘improvements’ to the bus services for the Marlborough area.
At Monday (26 September) evening’s meeting of the Planning Committee of the Town Council, meeting Chair, Councillor Nick Fogg, who sits on the relevant area ‘bus committee’ for Wiltshire announced the following list of improvements (actually, more than two):
- Concessionary bus passes could now be used all day with no time restrictions
- Services between Marlborough, Great Bedwyn and Hungerford averaged only 3 1⁄2 people per trip. However, there was no proposal to discontinue this valuable service. A hybrid model, combining timetabled and on-demand services would likely be introduced
- New on-demand services would focus on providing rail connections with Hungerford and Pewsey: they would not run late in the evening
- A new service (100) would be introduced to provide a direct bus between Marlborough and Devizes, running 4 times per day
- Funding was available to add two extra bus vehicles
- On demand services would comprise 2 x 8 seat vehicles
- Smaller vehicles required fewer driver qualifications
- There was a shortage of bus drivers (e.g. Salisbury Reds lacked 40 drivers)
Good news for those that rely on buses, particularly for those more elderly travellers who will now be able to travel free at any time of the day. The only obvious downside is that there will be no later evening services, which can create problems for those living in villages who don’t have access to a car and may be venturing into Marlborough for a meal, socialising or to the Cinema. But there hasn’t been an effective late night service for years. (Remember the late night ‘Wigglybus’ service?)
When will these changes take place? Councillor Fogg stated ‘March 2023’ but he didn’t add whether they would all be implemented together, or piecemeal.
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