Written evidence from E A Turner (BUS
92)
I understand that you would like bus
users to comment on the way changes to the bus services have,
or will, affect them.
As a non-driver, we chose the village
of Winsham very carefully when we moved here from Chard three
and a half years ago. At the time there was a splendid service,
the No 99 which went straight through to Taunton once every hour.
This meant that trips to Chard and Taunton were almost hassle-free.
Now, we have the No 90 bus which only
runs to Chard and is every two hours. I find that I am terrified
of missing the bus home because two hours is a very long time
to have to wait for the next one. Trips to Taunton are also affected
as we have to juggle the time-table to catch the connection in
Chard.
A lot of villagers no longer use the
bus because they have no one to call to rescue them if they miss
the bus, or as happened last week, the bus breaks down and is
taken out of service. Others take their car to Chard and travel
onwards by bus to avoid a long wait.
Unless a service is user-friendly,
it is not going to be used and this causes the bus company to
say that there are insufficient users and they withdraw the service.
One minute we are being asked to be "greener" in our
outlook and use public transport and the next we are being forced
into using our cars. Now that fuel prices are so high, we are
beginning to feel like prisoners when once we had the freedom
to go shopping, visit hospital, the doctor, the dentist, the optician
etc as well as meeting friends and relations.
March 2011
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