BSOG

Image by Alan Parkinson

'Farming Today' this morning had a brief feature on the BSOG: the Bus Service Operators Grant for community transport.
The idea of this is to subsidise bus services in some of the more remote rural locations that may otherwise have bus services operating at a loss due to the small number of people on them.

This would form an interesting context for some work on transport, or on rural change and challenge.

These bus services are essential for a growing number of people, and there is also the issue of an ageing population in many rural areas such as Devon, when people find that they can no longer afford to run a car, or are forced to stop as they reach a certain age, or standard of health.

Living in a remote part of Norfolk as I do, I did a bit of research on my local bus routes, just in case...
I travel to the GA in Sheffield once a week (sometimes more often...)
It takes me around 2 hours and 30 minutes, setting off at around 5.40am to avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic (although the last 20 miles of the journey takes me longer than the first 50...)
If I wanted to use public transport I would have to set off at 7.10 on the first bus of the day which would get me to King's Lynn at 8.35 (1 hour and 25 minutes for a 16 mile journey)
I would then have time to wander across to the railway station and get a coffee from the friendly folk at the cafe before taking the 8.59 train to Ely - I'd have 20 minutes to get a sandwich there before catching the East Midlands train from Ely to Sheffield, which takes 2 hours and 46 minutes...
I'd arrive in Sheffield at 12.38 and then have a 20 minute walk to the office, arriving around 1pm.

The bad news is that I wouldn't be able to get home that same day even if I turned round and set off back straight away...

Of course, it's my choice to live where I do (and to work where I do), but that's not the case for everyone in the village, and personal circumstances change over time...
What other factors can you think of that could feed into a student enquiry on the funding of such services...

[ A sideline to this was the discovery of a series of maps showing the designated Olympics routes for 2012. Might be useful for those of you planning to teach about the Olympics, and the associated infrastructure... ]

Also reminds me of the quote often (wrongly I believe) attributed to Margaret Thatcher that any man who finds himself on a bus over the age of 30 can count himself a failure...

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