We undertook a 10-month project on behalf of Gloucestershire Community Rail Partnership which aimed to build links between community transport providers and public transport networks in a rural area of England.

Community transport providers are charities or social enterprises which typically offer public transport services aimed at particular sections of the population, such as hospital appointments, daycare, or services aimed at reducing social isolation. The aim of the project was to see if community transport providers could grow their capacity and offer a more diverse range of services to bridge the gaps created by cuts to rural public transport.

The first part of the project comprised stakeholder engagement and capacity profiling, as well as preparing an options report focusing on the Severnside area, which has a combination of poor transport links, numerous tourist destinations, and a number of live housing developments which could fund public transport under s.106 agreements.

For the second part of the project, we designed and commissioned a local bus service in partnership with a local community transport operator. This linked an underutilised main line railway station with three local communities and tourist attractions including the wetland reserve at Slimbridge, one of the area’s most popular visitor destinations.

The service ran for three months over the summer of 2023 and was extremely popular, as well as generating many useful insights into local transport. Following the withdrawal of the service, a working group has been established with local stakeholders with the aim of reinstating the service at a future date.

To find out more about our experience of creating a new community bus service, head to our blog.