Comments on: Rural bus services: a lesson from history? http://taspublications.co.uk/blog/?p=50 Comment and Analysis from the UK's leading passenger transport specialists Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:22:00 +0100 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Phil Groocock http://taspublications.co.uk/blog/?p=50&cpage=1#comment-18 Phil Groocock Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:51:20 +0000 http://taspublications.co.uk/blog/?p=50#comment-18 Whilst this is a nice idea in principle, the biggest problem will be finding sufficient volunteers to be able to guarantee a reliable service. This is an issue facing community bus groups all over the country and whilst it may be reasonably easy to find someone who is prepared to drive a once a week shoppers bus, it is a totally different thing to expect someone to volunteer to get up early to drive a bus at 7am on a regular basis, for no money ! I can only assume that in the Netherlands, they are still able to engender a large amount of community spirit that encourages people with spare time to put something back into the community. Sadly in the UK we seem to be heading towards the American attitude of "what's in it for me" which makes finding volunteers to do something for nothing for any length of time extremely difficult. I would therefore suggest that anyone wanting to do more research into this idea has some lengthy conversations with existing community bus groups in the UK to find out the difficulties they face, as whilst cost of acquiring and operating a vehicle will certainly be mentioned, finding enough volunteers will also be raised as a major issue. Whilst this is a nice idea in principle, the biggest problem will be finding sufficient volunteers to be able to guarantee a reliable service. This is an issue facing community bus groups all over the country and whilst it may be reasonably easy to find someone who is prepared to drive a once a week shoppers bus, it is a totally different thing to expect someone to volunteer to get up early to drive a bus at 7am on a regular basis, for no money !

I can only assume that in the Netherlands, they are still able to engender a large amount of community spirit that encourages people with spare time to put something back into the community. Sadly in the UK we seem to be heading towards the American attitude of “what’s in it for me” which makes finding volunteers to do something for nothing for any length of time extremely difficult.

I would therefore suggest that anyone wanting to do more research into this idea has some lengthy conversations with existing community bus groups in the UK to find out the difficulties they face, as whilst cost of acquiring and operating a vehicle will certainly be mentioned, finding enough volunteers will also be raised as a major issue.

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