Funds allocated to push bus benefits among non-users
GRANT CASH TO GO TOWARDS
“educate” and show “how to use the bus” as well as training for those who are uncomfortable using public transport.
As part of the proposal, the Our Bus campaign, delivered by the county council, Bluestar, First Solent and Stagecoach, will be extended, and “free bus” Saturdays or weekends in several areas of Hampshire will be included.
The free weekend travel initiatives are proposed to operate across Hampshire but based on specific town networks, such as the Basingstoke, Andover and Winchester areas. However, this has yet to be confirmed.
Council officers said: “It’s all about getting more people to try and use public transport, to become more regular bus users and, hopefully, that’s the continued progress of getting people back on buses after Covid.”
According to the report, on the busiest bus routes in Hampshire that have services running every 20 minutes or more, the number of passengers carried has now returned to or exceeded the number of passengers using them before the pandemic. However, on less attractive routes, numbers still need to recover fully.
Of the BSIP+ funding, around £100,000 would be used to provide travel training, around £50,000 to develop promotional videos targeting young people and £50,000 to create and share how-to videos.
Executive lead member for universal services, Cllr Nick Adams-King, said: “This offers a great opportunity for us to highlight that actually there are some pretty good bus corridors around the county that offer some really good connectivity.
“Clearly, with two pounds a journey, it’s a lot cheaper to go some places than to take your car and park. So it’s worth pushing with people.”