Dear Villagers,
You are probably aware that St. Fillans is not well served with buses. The service provided by Stagecoach has been whittled away so that it only provides services at school times and Saturday evenings. PKC have funded a shuttle taxi bus over the lunchtime period on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays for a few years, but this is about to be withdrawn (due to lack of use).
We appreciate that most people who live in St Fillans probably have access to a car and make most journeys with their cars. However, there may be occasions when you would want or need to use public transport, such as:
- inability to drive due to injury or ill health
- you are a non-driver and need to attend medical or other appointments.
- you want to go out of the village for a social event and would like to have a drink
- your car is in the garage, and they need to keep it in overnight or longer
- you want to go for a walk and get the bus back, or vice versa
- a member of the family has borrowed your car
- you need to get to work
and there are many other examples of when we might need to use public transport.
A better bus service would enhance the independence of villagers who are dependent on buses or the goodwill of others to meet needs as above. And we haven’t even started on the impact of cars on the environment which could be mitigated by the use of buses!
We have the opportunity to apply to PKC for one of their used fleet minibuses to be transferred to the village for use as a community bus. However, we need to demonstrate in the application that there is a need for such a service from the community. Whilst the details of what this service might look like and how it might work still need to be worked out, we have to start somewhere.
We need as many people as possible to answer the questions posed in the questionnaire, we have created which is available online (link below) or as a paper copy in the Village Store.
Thank you in advance for your participation.
Community Bus Working Group
Update 15 December 2024
Who wants better transport for St. Fillans? We all do! We have a Bus Working Group – a small but perfectly formed group but it could do with some augmentation, we need three or four more energetic people to increase the revs. So, to stop the punning, call Val on 685208 or 0771 454 8219 or email val.banwell@gmail.com.
For those who are interested and want to know about progress with the endeavour why not join the Gi Us a Bus WhatsApp group? We would welcome any comments you may wish to make.
Val