Report highlights poor rural bus services

The report says businesses face recruitment issues due to the lack of reliable bus services

A bus franchising model could be used to improve the public transport network in rural North Yorkshire, according to a new report.

The system - which would see the local authority plan and manage bus services - has been proposed following a review of transport in the Richmond and Northallerton constituency.

The report found under the existing network "the majority of settlements were lacking service provision during peak hours" and many of the services were disjointed.

It comes after North Yorkshire's Combined Authority was chosen by the government to pilot bus franchising in rural areas in the Comprehensive Spending Review earlier this month

The Transport to Work and Study Review was compiled by Align Property Services.

It highlighted a limited number of connections from west of the A1 to Northallerton and Thirsk railway stations, adding that those available did not align with train timetables.

It said there was a lack of direct services to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and no bus services operating in Swaledale during peak times.

The review also noted there were no bus services from Leyburn and Masham to Bedale at peak times to connect with the 73 bus service to Northallerton, and no bus services from Wensleydale and Ripon to Richmond at peak times to meet the 55 service to Northallerton or 29 to Darlington.

The report says towns like Thirsk are slightly better served by buses but service levels vary

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the report concluded: "Analysis of existing public transport provision has indicated that the majority of settlements are lacking service provision during peak hours."

It said while main towns were "an exception" not all providers offered the same level of service.

"The surveys indicated that businesses had a general dissatisfaction with the availability of bus services, felt that this impacted their ability to recruit members of staff and negatively impacted their business," it said.

The report made a number of recommendations such as improving the information about existing services, implementing multi-operator bus ticketing, extending existing services to cover peak times and ensuring bus timetables connected with train times.

It also suggested looking at implementing a bus franchising model.

The result of the review is due to be discussed by members of the Richmond area committee on 30 June.

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