The last First Bus will be departing Frome for Shepton Mallet and Wells in August. That was First Bus's service 161. Wells based, this service had recently (within the last two years or so) been reduced to five schedules per day, having thus reduced it's viability and its customer base First Bus will now be able to withdraw service all together. Thank you First Bus!
So then, we need to examine Public Transport in this particular rural area (Mendip District & Frome), or rather absence thereof. Indeed the concept and purpose of Public Transport needs review.
Our elected representatives, at various levels, constantly complain at the high cost of supplying even rudimentary bus service while our government, retailers and our NHS focus ever inward towards a 'centralized' model of efficiency with scant regard to user access.
Rural Bus Services are generally non viable except as an adjunct to high frequency high densty City to Town hub and spoke schedules.(Bath to Frome, Warminster, Trowbridge or Bristol to Wells, Street, Weston-super-Mare) and local (Town) services.
All may not be lost, modern communication services may yet open new horizons for rural dwellers who have no personal transport. Services like Uber on the internet have set a model that should readily translate to a rural environment plus ride-share programs needs to be easier to set-up and use particularly, it should be legal for those providing a 'ride-share' to collect a reasonable, maybe regulated, contribution from the passenger. Hackney Carriage License holders will complain as always but a little competition should help consumers.
Lastly (for now) There should be a role here for local government, maybe less as a regulator than as a facilitator. Service providers and users should be registered. There should be codes of conduct for each. The obvious solution should be to operate a cashless system, indeed very much as Uber does now.
