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Town travel experiment to use midibuses
Page 47
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LEIGHTON BUZZARD is the latest town to try an experiment in town travel using two 23-seat midibuses to give a flexible service on routes taking in small residential areas.
The new service started on Monday and will be serving the areas of Leighton Buzzard and neighbouring town of Linslade. It has been sponsored by the Bedfordshire County Council and United Counties, a National Bus subsidiary.
In an announcement of the service the county council says that Leighton Buzzard is too small at 23,850 people to have its own bus service, but it is large enough to make journeys to shops and the station or across the town too long to walk.
After looking at ways of diverting normal bus services into the new suburbs they came to the conclusion that the roads were not suitable for full-sized buses and hit on the idea of using the midibuses.
The vehicles are Ford A Series based with Tricentrol Unibus bodies. They will be maintained by Tricentrol and run by United Counties operating from their Leighton Buzzard garage.
The buses will be operating a two-hour cycle beginning at the town centre and including five return journeys in the two hours, and they will be operating from 9am to 5pm.
Bedfordshire County Council says that it is aiming for a personalised service by using two regular drivers whom passengers will get to know as the service goes on.
But the council has made it plain to passengers "if you want to keep this service use it."
Each area on the routes is colour coded and the buses will have coloured boards with the area name on it and they will stop anywhere on request to give a door to door service. Fares will be 10p for adults and 8p for children.