INSIDE TRACK
Zero council input on publicity…Dorset’s rural tendered services are doomed if this is the best it can do, a pattern that is beginning to be repeated throughout the country with a few honourable exceptions
One of several counties to reduce its supported bus network recently is Dorset. Following a couple of holidays by bus three years ago, I thought I would try another trip in uncharted Dorset.
I say uncharted, as one of the items of expenditure that has been cut completely is any information on the changes. Three years ago there was a good website, three area timetable books and a county map.
As reductions to local authority funding have caused the changes, the county website would be the obvious place to look for information, but the prospective passenger will look in vain. All that is there is a list of routes in route number order, with a brief indication of a change. But as most changes involve a change of operator, route amalgamations and renumberings, a complete picture is essential, but absent. And any printed information has completely vanished.
Both operators of the revised services, South West Coaches and Go South Coast’s Damory, had timetables on their websites well in advance, s…
