Hereford Council has taken very positive action in making all bus travel FREE at weekends, and introducing new routes on Sundays. Everyone is urged to support this initiative by using the new routes and the free weekend services, to show the council that the demand for better bus services is there, and that if they provide even more public transport, people will use it.
The project, which started at the beginning of September, is funded by money from the Covid-19 Recovery Fund. It means that anyone can travel by bus, getting on and off as many times as they like, without having to pay anything - just so long the journey is entirely within the county. The scheme is part of an overall strategy to get people back onto public transport, encouraging people to use the bus as an alternative to the car, as part of the council's strategy on climate change and decarbonising transport.
As well as free bus travel at weekend, extra Sunday bus services are being introduced on a considerable number of primary routes in the county which have not had Sunday services for many years. These routes are:
34 Ross-on-Wye - Monmouth
36 Hereford - Monmouth
40 Ross Town service
401 Leominster Town service
420 Bromyard - Hereford
426 Hereford - Bodenham
454 Hereford - Fownhope
461 Kington - Hereford
492 Leominster - Hereford
496 Leominster - Shobdon - Pembridge - Eardisland circular
600 Ledbury Town service
675 Ledbury - Colwall - Great Malvern
This scheme will be reviewed to see what effect it is having on bus use. It can be assumed that if the number of journeys by bus does not increase as a result of this initiative, then services will be cut, so please get hopping - on and off buses - and encourage everyone you know to do the same. BUS IT! and make the scheme a real success.
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