Letter: It Would Be Great To See the Return of the Shuttle-Bus But…

Published on: 15 Sep, 2019
Updated on: 15 Sep, 2019

Guildford shuttle-bus

From John Redpath

R4GV borough councillor for Holy Trinity

In response to: Guildford Lib Dem Plan To Check Out Return Of Free Shuttle-Bus Causes Caustic Replies

My daughter, and fellow R4GV [Residents for Guildford & Villages] ward councillor, Maddy, proposed the return of the town shuttle-bus both before and since the May council election.

We are both very keen to see it in operation again but there are a number of matters included in a report to the GBC management team, dated June 5 2008, that may affect the decision:

• The original service initially ran with mini-buses and failed on reliability, so it was necessary to switch to more reliable single-decker buses.
• The council can only operate such a service if it doesn’t conflict with those existing (I believe part of the route will nowadays conflict with the No 23).
• The cost is very high it’ll be around £100k a year and, I think, with the ease you can pay by touch card now there would be no objection for a voluntary contribution of say £1 per journey? This would be an excellent way for the public to show support for the service.
• There could be some loss of support from the public if it ends up costing ratepayers £90-100k per annum, especially if numbers using it don’t improve above the average 10 passengers per journey of the previous service.

For all that, I feel it would be great to have it back. Our family used it a lot and would almost certainly use it again.

We (R4GV) were actually in the process of researching the service but it looks like the crafty Lib Dems have jumped the gun, although promising what is only a feasibility study.  As our party leader observed in your article, there must be some sort of election expected.

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