Yorkshire Dales gets integrated Sunday travel service

THANKS to a unique initiative by two leading local environmental groups, the Yorkshire Dales are this summer enjoying one of the best, fully integrated, Sunday public transport networks for many years.

Earlier in the year many weekend DalesBus services were under threat from funding cutbacks, but a new partnership has managed to save most services, and establish several new links. The ground-breaking 2008 bus network has been made possible through the work of the new Dales & Bowland Community Interest Company, jointly established last year by the Yorkshire Dales Society and Yorkshire Dales Public Transport Users Group (YDPTUG). The new company has combined local authority funding with grants and donations from a variety of other organisations, to enable the development of an integrated travel network.

Bus services collect visitors at Ilkley, Skipton and Ribblehead railway stations, and carefully planned timetables allow many new journeys to and across the Dales. The network also provides local people in the Dales with local Sunday and Bank Holiday bus services which they otherwise would not be able to enjoy.

Highlights of the Summer Sunday DalesBus network for 2008 include:

• A new morning service (bus 807) from Leyburn to Aysgarth, Hawes and Ribblehead
• Easy connections from Leeds-Settle-Carlisle trains at Ribblehead Station with new bus 807 service for Wensleydale and the Ingleborough Pony 888 service for Ingleton
• The innovative Ingleborough Pony park and ride minibus service 888 serving Ingleborough National Nature Reserve and also providing links from Clapham Station to Ingleton and White Scar Caves
• A through service (bus 802) from Leeds and Otley to Pateley Bridge, Ripon, Fountains Abbey, Leyburn and Richmond
• Services from Harrogate and Pateley Bridge to Lofthouse and How Stean Gorge in Upper Nidderdale (bus 25) and to Brimham Rocks (bus 26).
• Fountains Shuttle service 139 running hourly between Ripon and Fountains Abbey, connecting with buses from Leeds and Harrogate

Thanks to the new funding arrangements all these routes (except bus 814) will run every Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday until the end of September, with some routes continuing throughout the Autumn and Winter.

These routes complement the existing regular Sunday and Bank Holiday trunk bus routes in Nidderdale (bus 24 from Harrogate to Pateley Bridge), Airedale/Wharfedale (bus 66A from Keighley and Skipton to Grassington) and Wensleydale (buses 156/157 from Northallerton and Leyburn to Hawes), which run throughout the year.

Special Dales Rover tickets are available on all DalesBus services and there are also interchangeable rail and bus tickets to the Dales from stations on the Metro Airedale and Wharfedale railway lines.

Colin Speakman, Vice Chairman of the Yorkshire Dales Society commented, “This network is only possible thanks to the excellent and generous support received from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Nidderdale AONB, North Yorkshire County Council, Metro and many other organisations and local businesses. Without this support, none of these services could operate. We want visitors to forget high petrol prices and the credit crunch and have a super day out in the Dales. An added bonus for anyone over 60 with an All England Concessionary Pass is that they can now travel free on the whole DalesBus network. “

We want visitors to forget high petrol prices and the credit crunch and have a super day out in the Dales

Colin Speakman - Yorkshire Dales Society

Paul Chattwood, Projects Officer of the YDPTUG added, “So far usage of the improved network has been most encouraging, and this will allow most services to continue until the end of September. We also hope to be able to provide a more modest autumn and winter Sunday DalesBus network. After all visitors still come in October by car so why should bus services cease at the very time when local businesses in the Dales most need more tourist income, and when the weather is perfect for walking?”

“The DalesBus services can enable ramblers to access a huge range of superb linear as well as circular walks. The new services provide lots of extra capacity so we hope that many more people will take advantage of these superb new facilities in the coming weeks. We’d like to encourage anyone who hasn’t travelled on the DalesBus services recently to give them a try – we’re confident that they will be rewarded with a great day out.”

Full details of the DalesBus summer bus network and a programme of Dalesbus Ramblers guided walks from the buses are available in booklets from local tourist information centres and online at www.dalesbus.org.