The nine point plan covers basic standards that should be expected for bus service information including bus stops; fairer fares; plainer ticketing, improved timetabling, better connecting services, and perhaps most importantly, decent complaints procedures.
If you are a bus user it’s your opportunity to have your views fed back into the way RELBUS is campaigning on your behalf. Becoming a member of RELBUS is free and open to anyone living in or travelling to and from East Lothian.
RELBUS aims to campaign to improve accessibility for all and seeks better promotion of buses as a viable and acceptable form of transport, rather than an option of last resort. RELBUS believes that the Council and bus companies servicing East Lothian can do more and that good consultation procedures could help to map out a far better future for rural bus users across the county. That’s also why RELBUS recently welcomed the creation of a Local Bus forum by East Lothian Councillor Michael Veitch.
Barry Turner, Chair of RELBUS said: “We are looking forward to developing a constructive dialogue with operators, East Lothian Council and Community Councils. For too long bus travel in rural areas has been seen as a last resort, rather than the preferred mode of transport. We’ve identified a good number of supply measures that could help increase demand, even in the current deregulated market. We will continue to work with others to identify novel means of supplementing rural bus services in order to meet a wider range of local needs”.
Taking part in the consultation
To have your say simply go to the RELBUS Consultation Questions and, if you have a view, leave your comment in the text box at the bottom of the page. In all there are nine consultation questions. This is notionally intended for existing members of RELBUS. Fortunately joining is free and takes no time to do. If you rely on buses in East Lothian it’s in your interests to join.
For more information visit the RELBUS website.
Background: What is RELBUS?
RELBUS (Rural East Lothian Bus Users) is a volunteer-led group set up to campaign for better rural transport in East Lothian. RELBUS is a membership organisation, which is free. It holds public forums, meetings with operators and has an ongoing dialogue with local politicians of all parties and the local authority. For more information about RELBUS contact info@relbus.org.uk
Personally my top concern is the lack of any apparent ideas or approach to inter-village public transport. Outside of the buses taking people to and from Edinburgh, I believe we need a smarter approach to connections between smaller outlying villages and hubs such as Tranent, North Berwick, Dunbar, Haddington and key train connections such as Wallyford.
Relying on private contractors to deliver commercially unviable but socially vital connections is a doomed strategy. As an area the Council needs to look on this as a service that it seeks to deliver recognising that it’s about providing a base level of transport infrastructure around East Lothian that deregulated buses would never fill on commercial grounds.
Without this, rural parts of the county will simply stagnate and people will choose not to live anywhere other than large towns (unless they can afford to sustain private transport into the hinterlands).
This is about much more than decent local buses for outlying areas of the county. It’s about maintaining the economic viability and long term survival of rural East Lothian for everyone, now and into the future.
Ralph