Following a lengthy review of the rural Pathfinder network which sadly has seen declining patronage figures for many years, Nottingham City Transport have decided to concentrate on improving the viability of the main Nottingham-Newark services, both through Southwell and via the A46 serving the majority of its loyal customers more effectively.
The new Pathfinder service has been considerably simplified designed with passenger comments in mind and will concentrate on 4 basic routes:
- 90 Balderton Newark A46 / A52 Nottingham
- 100 Newark Southwell Nottingham
- 101 Newark Southwell
- 54 Victoria Park Jessops Lane Mapperley
Service 90
This will replace existing services 90, 91, 91A, 91B, 91X, 102 as the main route from Newark Northgate via current 91X route to Nottingham, the buses will no longer serve Bingham or Radcliffe on Trent Centres which currently enjoy excellent alternative bus services. This will speed up the service for the core market from Newark and beyond, there will also be an increased number of journeys for Balderton at peaks.
Service 100
This replaces existing services 100, 101, 102, 201 and 202 as the main service operating between Southwell, Lowdham, Burton Joyce and Nottingham. It will run every 20 minutes Monday to Saturday daytime and every hour in the evenings and Sunday daytime.
The two main through services will continue to operate evenings and Sundays following an agreement by Nottinghamshire County Council to financially support these key routes, which are not commercially viable at these times. NCT and NCC have been working closely together to ensure that these services operate on a full basis providing Newark and Southwell with links to Nottingham at all times.
Service 101
The Newark to Southwell service has been split from main Nottingham service providing an hourly Monday to Saturday daytime service, following a circular route in Southwell to provide improved links to Newark, as follows: Easthorpe, Church Street, Westgate, Allenby Road, Halam Road, Ropewalk to Norwood Gardens, Lower Kirklington Road, Burgage, Church Street, Easthorpe and back to Newark. The service has been timed to connect with 100 at Norwood Gardens, for through journeys.
Service 54
This is a new service based on passenger requests to improve shopping links with a simpler service and timetable, this will operate from Victoria Park via Netherfield, Jessops Lane, Gedling, and Westdale Lane to Mapperley Top. The buses will be timed to connect with Link 2 Park and Ride service at Victoria Park and will run as an hourly Monday to Friday daytime service.
Commercial Manager Barrie Burch stated this is the biggest change to Pathfinder services for 3 years, we have worked hard with Nottinghamshire County Council to maintain and strengthen these core routes and believe this new faster, simplified service will attract new customers.
As part of this review services 102, 103 and 200 will cease to operate from 3 April 2005. All three services are unviable for NCT to continue running because the current revenue each service takes is not meeting the operational costs of providing the service.
The 102 and 103 currently receive some financial support from the County Council to contribute towards the running costs of the services, but even with this funding, both services still run at a loss.
The 102 which provides a limited evening service will be replaced by improved regular hourly timetables on services 90 and the 100, which are supported by the County Council. There will be no direct NCT replacement for Gunthorpe and East Bridgford, but both villages continue to be served by alternative operators in the evenings.
The 103, for the Trentside Villages including Rolleston, Hoveringham and Staythorpe will finish on the weekend of 2 April. Nottinghamshire County Council is investigating possible alternatives but in view of the very low numbers of passengers, the current service cannot be sustained through subsidy.
The 200 for Ravenshead and Rainworth will also finish on the weekend of 2 April 2005 because the route runs well outside the Newark / Southwell territory, making it unviable for Pathfinder to continue operating, however the 200 service will be replaced by another operator to ensure continuity of bus service for these regular commuters.
The new Pathfinder services will also see a new simplified, zonal fare structure with the Farecard remaining for discounted travel.
Full details of the new timetables will be available from mid-March, it is planned to communicate the new network to local residents through local marketing activity at Newark and Southwell market place, plus household leaflet drops and a personalised mail out to existing farecard users.
Posters will be displayed along the route and of course on the buses together with timetables, and there will be information in the local media.
Any queries in the meantime should be directed to the NCT Travel Centre 0115 950 60 70, where staff are fully briefed to provide further information.
Back to news items |
