Wittering’s bus service marked its first anniversary yesterday with a thank you party for the locals.
Stagecoach who operate it say the village is a shining example of what can be done. And they say although it's not commercially viable yet, they've seen a steady increase of passengers over the past six months. Service 27 runs between Stamford and Peterborough and also calls at Wansford, Castor and Ailsworth and Longthorpe. It is subsidised by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough combined mayoral authority, including £1 journeys for everyone who lives in the area under 25. David Boden from operators Stagecoach East says it's a remarkable achievement.
‘It’s not at commercial levels yet, but over the last six months passenger numbers per month have grown to 2,217, which in the last six months states that I've got a 21% increase in passenger numbers which for a rural attended bus service is remarkable. And again the hard work that the bus committee have done in keeping the bus service foremost in people's minds. Obviously with some arctic stuff from us, frankly, I think this is the heart of that growth and I can only see it going from strength to strength. We are at the moment trying to engage with the base because I do think that if the base had a conversation about their transport needs frankly we could do even more. And certainly you know we've gone to the extremes of talking to other counties et cetera and see what they can do to support the bus committee as they truly are the model of how to do it in rural areas, in terms of getting people out and making bus services work’.
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