Here is an update from the North Yorkshire Moors National Park Authority re public bus service known as Moorsbus
A campaign has been started to use the funds that are available to keep Moorsbus going in 2014 and beyond.
www.kms-environmentgroup.org.uk/friends-of-moorsbus-campaign/who-are-friends-of-moorsbus/
Here is the website and links to the active facebook page. Please give us your support to ensure public access to this area of outstanding beauty.
Thankyou.Evyore
Please note that the 26th November Summit to keep Moorsbus on the move is extremely important in the campaign to save Moorsbus.
Thankyou
Unfortunately the National Park Authority refused to fund Moorsbus 2014 at the summit and has decided to spend the money on 3 minibuses for under-represented groups, though is also prepared to help Friends of Moorsbus set up a Community Interest Company to promote public transport. In a letter I received from the Chief Executive of the NPA he puts forward the points that passengers using concessionary passes would be unwillingly to pay fares in sufficient numbers to make the service viable and that shrinking the network would inevitably make it less attractively and shrink passenger numbers and that the network can therefore not be made viable. The first argument is based on the fall in patronage of the Heritage Bus of over 50% when a £5 charge was introduced for concessionary pass holders. Making a charge for one bus in the network is obviously a completely different scenario to charging for travel on the whole network, however. The NYCC reimbursement for concessionary passes is around 42% and "tourist services" (i.e. services not accepting concessionary passes) are also not eligible for the Bus Service Operators' Grant (formerly fuel duty rebate), as also detailed on the Friends of Moorsbus website. It is in fact very difficult to predict how much concessionary pass usage would decline, as as far as I am aware there has been no previous removal of pass validity on a network of this kind. As to the redesigning of the network, he doesn't appear to realise how attractive a Moorsbus network with 8 buses would be with a different timetable, for example, by connecting with rail services at Thirsk, Northallerton, Danby and Malton and with Coastliner services at Malton and Pickering and running to Castle Howard, Flamingo Land and Whitby, which would attract paying passengers. Until now Moorsbus services have only been timetabled to connect with other Moorsbus services, severely restricting connections to nearby towns and cities. In the 2013 timetable 3 buses ran the Rosedale and Dalby Forest services, which in my limited experience, are very lightly used (particularly Rosedale). In fact, 1 bus running 2-3 times to Rosedale and 2-3 times to the Dalby Forest would be completely sufficient and, if it connected well the Coastliner, 128 services and trains at Malton (perhaps attracting passengers from Leeds), would be far more attractive. The Moorsbus network required a subsidy of 80% of its costs in 2013, whereas the Dalesbus system only required a 60% subsidy, despite having to run much longer routes. The website also says that the NPA spent about £26 000 on marketing in 2013 (to little effect), whereas the proposal was for £10 000 in 2014, making extensive use of volunteers. I think what's most likely to be provided in 2014 now is a very limited service using perhaps 3 buses providing a few basic Sunday & Bank Holiday services between Pickering, Helmsley and Danby with feeder services from Hull and Teesside, mostly funded by fares / concessionary pass income, with some small contributions from other sources.
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Hi The exact amount of funding is something that i can get back to you on, but i believe it came from Central Government Funding and from LA's. [/url]
No, the Moorsbus was funded entirely by the National Park Authority in its last years (c. £160 000 in 2013), NYCC made a contribution of £50 000 until (I believe) 2010 - after this Tuesday and Friday services in July and September were replaced by a Wednesday service in 2011. The National Park Authority made a contribution of just over £200 000 until around that time, which has since been reduced. This meant the loss of the Wednesday service in July and September and the Monday-Saturday service during the July/August school holidays. The current debate has centred around the £100 000 per year which the National Park Authority had set aside for transport from 2014 onwards.