C7 bus service

As part of the county council cuts, one proposal is to end the subsidy paid to the bus company to run the C7 service covering Sawston, Duxford and Whittlesford. The problem is that the bus is pretty empty going through Whittlesford, and fills up from Sawston onwards into Cambridge. But the county has been paying a staggering quarter of a million (£239k) each year in subsidy. It does make you wonder whether the deal has been a good one ...

My point is that we are going to have to be flexible about these sorts of services, and one thing I reckon we should look at is a feeder service that collects people from villages and drops off at a Sawston bus stop to connect with the main bus - and runs to a time that co-incides with the train departures at Whittlesford, which the C7 currently doesnt.

This is the set-up in Hong Kong, and probably other places round the world, which has stood the test of time (in that it was running 20 years ago when I first lived there and was still going strong, now with air-conditioning, when we were back last year).

Of course you still need a driver, but the operating costs of a small mini-bus must be less than a huge double-decker. If each parish council put in a subsidy, and made it clear to villagers that was what it was doing, there might be more sense of ownership and support. Insurance costs - maybe the local authority could use its purchasing muscle to negotiate a good deal.

Or, we just accept that there isnt going to be much of a bus service, and we all drive around, paying whatever it will be next for a litre of gas, and the people who can't drive are trapped in the village (without its village shop...).