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Viable rural transport

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Bletchleyite

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From the Flybe thread (!):

Only further - and radical - changes to society will allow us to go back to a situation in which public transport forms a viable alternative to the car in many rural areas.

Or maybe a change in the law, easing operations like "Bob's minibus" which he might do in between ploughing his fields? At present he'd have to register his route etc, and wouldn't be able to do something different this week because the villagers had got together and agreed it, but in reality for that kind of "local service for local people" he would tell people directly he was having a day off or something.

Perhaps one should be allowed to operate that kind of bus service, using say a 17 seater minibus with a tail lift, on a taxi licence? Or indeed even an extension of Section 19 to for-profit very small operations? The Dutch have that sort of concept in their "Buurtbus" services I believe.
 
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carlberry

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An 8 seater can operate on a taxi licence, rural areas rarely have a way of sustaining larger loads and, for community/volunteer operations can already operate bigger vehicles to provide those kind of services to groups. Section 19 is already used as a way to operate bus services on the cheap so I cant imagine reducing the regulations even more would be popular with other operators and there's the ever present problem that a significant number of passengers have to be carried for free with minimal compensation.
The problem for 'deep rural' areas is that public transport is never going to compete with a car, the major issue is trying to provide for those without access to cars.
 

carlberry

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Can it charge individual fares, though? I guess it probably can, as the Viavan and Uberpool services appear to be doing that?
I believe that part of the 1986 act allowed for taxis to charge individual fares like buses (The idea was that large numbers of small owner driven vehicles would be running around scooping up people) however I don't think it's been used much as taxi drivers were not really that keen on it.
 

adrock1976

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What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
What happened to the Postbus that operated in various rural areas?

I once had a 1993-94 guide of Postbuses for the rural parts of Scotland (I think the guide or bundle of leaflets were titled "Scotland by Bus" or something like that and may have been promoted by the Scottish Tourist Board).
 

Busaholic

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What happened to the Postbus that operated in various rural areas?

I once had a 1993-94 guide of Postbuses for the rural parts of Scotland (I think the guide or bundle of leaflets were titled "Scotland by Bus" or something like that and may have been promoted by the Scottish Tourist Board).
All went, gradually. There were about 200 routes once, across the U.K. as a whole, with Scotland well represented and I think that country had the last postbus of all, in the Highlands somewhere iirc, three or four years ago?
 

Bletchleyite

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All went, gradually. There were about 200 routes once, across the U.K. as a whole, with Scotland well represented and I think that country had the last postbus of all, in the Highlands somewhere iirc, three or four years ago?

They were made much less useful by the reduction to one collection/delivery a day meaning they couldn't be used for convenient day trips e.g. to the shops.
 

Busaholic

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They were made much less useful by the reduction to one collection/delivery a day meaning they couldn't be used for convenient day trips e.g. to the shops.
Absolutely, it was changes made by the Royal Mail to postal services that did for them: anything else was peripheral, but I suspect top management weren't sorry to see them go, and privatisation would have been the final nail in the coffin.
 
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