Cornwall launch bus pass scheme for 16-18 year olds

Cornwall have launched a trial scheme for sixteen to eighteen year olds in West Cornwall (including Hayle, Penzance, St Ives and St Just) which gives ‘Boarder’ bus pass holders a discount of thirty-three per cent on local bus fares – approximately two thousand, three hundred young people are eligible to participate in the trail scheme which will operate until 31 August 2010. The scheme is designed to assist young people to access education, training and job opportunities, as well as social and leisure activities. The new ‘Boarder’ bus pass is valid for all local bus journeys within the designated geographical area (postcodes TR17, TR18, TR19, TR20, TR26 and TR27) and also for journeys not requiring a change of bus that start within the permitted zone – return tickets can be purchased at a one-third discount for through journeys originating in the designated area.

District councils lose concessionary fares responsibility

The Government’s working group on local government finance has been told that the Department for Transport (DfT) is to transfer responsibility for concessionary travel administration from district to county councils – unitary authorities are unaffected by this change. The future of the existing system of locally determined discretionary concessions will not be known until the DfT publishes a response to the recent consultation on concessionary fares administration.

Ferry firm plans legal action after loss of contract

The firm, Tamar Cruising and Cremyll Ferry, that has provided the ferry between Cremyll and Stonehouse for the last twenty-four years is planning legal action after losing the contract to another operator, Sound Cruising. The new seven year contract has been awarded by the Mount Edgcumbe Joint Committee, comprising representatives of Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Council, on the basis that the new operator will provide an enhanced timetable (including a longer summer season), better connectivity with local bus services and improved service quality.

Bristol joins ‘high-speed’ consortium

Bristol City Council has joined a consortium ‘HSR||UK’, comprising eleven local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales, to lobby central government for the provision of a network of ‘high-speed’ rail lines in Great Britain.

Poole buys buses

Poole Borough Council has spent two hundred and forty-eight thousand pounds on two new buses for use on the contracted town centre service, branded ‘Route One’, which is operated by Wilts and Dorset – the ‘Route One’ service, which is funded from Section 106 contributions and local area agreement pump priming funds, links with the town’s bus and railway stations with the local hospital, shopping centre and visitor destinations.

Stagecoach reduce fares for ‘Car Free Day’

Stagecoach South West will be offering one-day Explorer tickets for just three pounds (a discount of three pounds and fifty pence) on Tuesday 22 September to celebrate the ‘Devon Car Free Day’ – the ‘Car Free’ Explorer can be used on all the company’s bus services in Devon.

And finally,

Investors are been sought for a public transport co-operative that aims to launch open access rail services, bus routes and car clubs in the South West of England – the ‘Go! Co-operative’ is seeking to raise fifty thousand pounds ‘seed capital’ by the end of September and a further quarter of a million pounds by the end of the year. The new enterprise, chaired by Tim Pearce, a former director of the Radstock Co-operative Society, aims to establish car clubs in two locations by January 2010, a new bus route by May 2010 and an ‘open access’ cross-country rail service, possibly linking stations in Somerset and Wiltshire, by May 2011.