AFTER THE BUS. SOCIAL EFFECTS OF REDUCTIONS IN RURAL BUS SERVICES

TEST was asked by Friends of the Earth to study the decline in rural bus services. After pilot studies in Norfolk and Hereford & Worcester, four cases studies were undertaken. One was of conditions immediately before a bus service cut in Devon and Oxfordshire, and after one had been made in Norfolk and Gwynedd. Social effects are widespread: essential trips are curtailed, and rural residents' freedom of choice and access to life-enhancing opportunities are limited. If cuts continue, villages could become dormitories, with many second and retirement homes for the better off, while the car-less become isolated or drift to towns. The report concludes that rather than let rural buses decline, they should be improved. Not only would this enhance many people's lives, it would conserve fuel and reduce road accidents, air and noise pollution. The alternative is stark: the run-down and later abandonment of services tend to be terminal: the market for bus use may well go. (TRRL)

  • Availability:
  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Transport and Environment Studies.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Friends of the Earth

    377 City Road
    London,   England 
  • Publication Date: 1984-7

Media Info

  • Features: Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 60 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00390166
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
  • ISBN: 0-905545-07-9
  • Report/Paper Numbers: Test Report 59 Monograph
  • Files: ITRD, TRIS
  • Created Date: Oct 30 1984 12:00AM