Making buses a realistic alternative to cars.

Greater use of buses can be an important element in reducing car usage and carbon emissions. The new Labour government says it will introduce a Bill giving leaders of local authorities - such as Dorset Council - more control over bus services. This presents Dorset with a great opportunity to play an important part in tackling the climate crisis.

To persuade car drivers to swap their vehicle for buses, the journeys on offer need to be frequent and practical. Allow me to suggest one example where a small change would have the potential to deliver a big difference.

The X51/X53 service between Dorchester and Axminster via Bridport is at present an hourly service. It is used both by local residents and visitors and is very popular, especially during the busier holiday months. Visitors planning a day out walking can take a bus to their starting point or vice versa without having the bother of using their car. And residents can use the service to go shopping or attend appointments without the fuss or worry of finding a parking space and expense of parking charges and fuel.

However, with a bus arriving only once an hour, flexibility and convenience is much reduced. On the hourly service, if a passenger misses their intended bus or it simple fails to arrive for some reason (breakdown or delay), the wait can be considerable and could well discourage people from using this option, at least for time critical journeys. If the extra wait was limited to twenty or thirty minutes, however, that is a duration that would be much more acceptable and attractive.

For comparison, in Cumbria, there is a service through the busy central lakes (Service 599: Windermere - Ambleside - Grasmere) that runs every twenty minutes. Passengers don’t even need to check the times. They just turn up to a bus stop knowing a service will shortly be along. And this (open top) service is very popular indeed. Another service runs along the same route but its journey is extended at each end (Service 555: Kendal - Keswick). The frequency here (in the summer) is every thirty minutes and again it is very well used. And there are numerous other examples of sustainable transport initiatives in the area as well.

The Lake District, like Dorset, enjoys a tourist season that stretches well beyond the school holidays and the impact on car journeys of these initiatives is evident. The Lake District National Park says there has been a reduction in visitors using their cars as the main mode to travel around the area of fifteen per cent since 2018.

If the X51/X53 service in Dorset was to be run at a half-hourly frequency, passengers could rely on being able to complete their journey in a reasonable time and at a lower cost than driving. The result, I believe, would be an increase in popularity of the service resulting, as in the Lake District, in fewer journeys by car.

This is just one example. But it could be a useful beginning for a network of carefully planned bus services across the county that would hopefully one day come to be be used as naturally as people at present use their cars.

The easiest way to travel around Dorset for most people is by car. Public transport is really very limited and mostly not a practical alternative. But it could be improved, particularly in the case of bus travel, to the benefit of residents and visitors alike. This in turn would have the effect of reducing carbon emissions. However, to have a meaningful effect, bus services need to be provided with a frequency that would make them a realistically easy and efficient alternative to cars. This has already been achieved to a large extent in many other parts of the country, both in major cities and in some rural areas, like Cumbria. I believe it could also be achieved here in Dorset thanks to the intention of the government to give local authorities like Dorset Council more control over bus services. Plan to make b us travel a realistic alternative