Pensioners’ strolling bus: Villagers be a part of forces to trek alongside 60mph highway after cuts to bus providers depart them CUT OFF from city
It’s a hazardous trek by foot along a 60mph bypass with no pavement and a series of blind bends.
But this is the route pensioners claim they have been forced to risk after buses to the nearest town were slashed.
They have set up a ‘walking bus’ saying the cuts have left five-hour gaps in services, isolating them from essential services.
The elderly residents acted after operator Bluestar reduced the number of buses to and from Calshot, Hampshire, to Fawley.
The changes in September left many with no choice but to brave the 1.5mile-walk in a procession to access GPs, shops and schools. To protest against the journey some pensioners in the village have to make every day, ten campaigners in high-vis jackets marched alongside the traffic on the Fawley Bypass this month.
Josie Taylor, 72, gave up driving two years ago and cannot leave her terminally ill husband for more than two hours but now struggles to get to the shops due to the bus cuts.
‘We are forced to walk on a fast road with no pavement and several blind bends to get to Fawley,’ she said. ‘There are so many lorries on that road and the speed of traffic makes it really scary.
‘Car drivers seem to think that just because the limit is 60, they can take bends at 60 even though they cannot see pedestrians in the road or vehicles coming the other way. I’d like to see a minimum of one bus every two hours and we also need a usable footpath to Fawley.’
Villagers have been forced to form a ‘walking bus’ and travel along a dangerous 60mph road with no pavement after public transport was cut in their area
The elderly residents acted after operator Bluestar reduced the number of buses to and from Calshot, Hampshire, to Fawley. The changes in September left many with no choice but to brave the 1.5mile-walk in a procession to access GPs, shops and schools
Linda Worf, 74, added: ‘We need a better bus service.
‘You can’t walk along the grass bank beside the road because it’s so uneven so you have to walk on the road and it’s not safe.’
Phil Sutton relied on the bus to get to Southampton General Hospital where he is being treated for glaucoma but said he is now forced to pay £30 to get home by taxi.
Jackie Clark said the only footpath to Fawley can be partly submerged by high tide from the nearby Solent and has very muddy sections in winter, making it unusable for many.
More than 1,250 villagers have signed a petition urging Bluestar and Hampshire County Council to restore Calshot’s bus services.
It has been presented to the local authority by the Better Buses for Waterside campaign which wants hourly bus services to return.
Bluestar general manager Richard Tyldesley said: ‘Demand for services from Calshot during the week is low so we can’t justify an hourly service.
It’s a hazardous trek by foot along a 60mph bypass with no pavement and a series of blind bends
A Bluestar bus in Southampton City Centre (stock photo)
‘We have tailored some key journeys to operate at the times when the most people travel.’
It comes at a time when the frequency of rural bus services in England has reached a historic low.
Research from the County Councils Network found that more than a quarter of rural routes disappeared over the last decade and passenger numbers have fallen significantly.
Labour’s decision to push up the national bus fare cap from £2 to £3 per journey could also hit services when it comes into force tomorrow.
