Dales bus made famous by ‘slow TV’ facing end of the road

A BUS that became one of the best adverts for the English countryside when it starred in a BBC “slow television” documentary is to be axed due to council cost cutting.

The number 830 “Northern Dalesman” was followed along a 40-mile route around the Yorkshire Dales for two hours for the BBC Four show All Aboard! The Country Bus.

It featured no commentary or music and attracted nearly a million viewers who watched it wind its way along a route from Richmond to Ingleton in “real time” when it aired last year.

But the rural Sunday service, run by the Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company (CIC), will end unless private funding can be found before its public subsidies run out next year.

North Yorkshire County Council withdrew its support for the service in 2013 and now West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which provides £22,000 a year, has announced that it is to withdraw funding from next April.

A few months after the BBC documentary was broadcast, the CIC, a volunteer-run subsidy of the Friends of the Dales charity, turned to crowdfunding website Justgiving to attract donations.

Paul Chattwood, the CIC commercial director, said: “It costs £70,000 a year to provide these Sunday and bank holiday services, which in the great scheme of things is not much.

“We must bang the drum for more public transport in the Dales.”

One in 20 over-65s in Britain watched All Aboard! The Country Bus.