A former town council member and environmental campaigner has called for a review of public transport provision after bus services have been reduced.
Jeff Thomson, best known for his campaign against odour pollution in Penrith, and who was an independent councillor for the Penrith West ward on Penrith Town Council, claimed public transport is being neglected in the Castletown area.
He said there are fewer 646 buses into the town and those that come through Castletown only go one way.
Three bus stops on Norfolk Road and Newton Road in Castletown leading into the town centre have closed and are no longer in use, he added.
“This means pedestrians, including elderly people, who regularly use the 646 now have to cross the busy, and often dangerous B5288 through Castletown, just to get on and off the bus,” Mr Thomson added.
He also spoke of the Stagecoach number 2 service for North Lakes School which was reduced nearly a year ago: “The service now only collects the children in the morning, bus doesn’t bring them back after stopping the return bus service.
“Plus, the bus route has been cut leaving another closed bus stop on Mill Street.”
Jeff Thomson at closed bus stop (Image: Supplied)
It is understood that Stagecoach stopped operating the 2 service because it wasn’t commercially feasible.
Following this, the school took it on but stopped offering it due to financial unsustainability.
Mr Thomson added that what is ‘particularly galling’ is that buses ‘frequently pass along the B5288 through Castletown from the bus depot on Gilwilly Industrial Estate’.
These buses are signed ‘not in service’, so none stop at any stops, he added.
Westmorland and Furness Council (WFC) have this week backed a £1.7million plan to ‘restore and improve’ 30 bus routes across its governing area, which includes Penrith.
WFC said the spending plan, which involves money from the central government’s department for transport as part of its ‘bus service improvement plan plus’ scheme, will see communities benefit.
Amongst the 30 services that are approved to receive funding, the X6 from Kendal to Barrow is proposed to increase from an hourly service to half hourly, a much-requested improved service for Greystoke near Penrith, and the 646 service, currently operated by local firm NBM.
WFC said it will ‘build on the current peak service by introducing off-peak times to support school commute’ for the 646 service from Castletown to Penrith.
Before February 2024, services in the WFC area only operated on a commercial basis, on which all costs were covered by collected fares, including rebate from WFC for acceptance of the English National Concessionary Travel Pass.
This meant that, apart from where limited funding from the community was available, the level of service was limited outside of areas of high population, on links between them, and in tourist areas.
WFC added: “This funding will give the opportunity to restore some of the missing links and make more attractive and strengthen existing services.”
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