Service ends as passengers fail to catch on

11 January 2007

An experimental orbital bus route will end almost 12 months early, after the service failed to generate the patronage to justify it, despite two revamps.
The Norwich Orbital Bus Service, funded as a trial by the Government for £1.2M as part of the Urban Bus Challenge Programme, is likely to end in March, if members at Norfolk County Council agree to a recommendation to be heard at cabinet on 29 January. Attempts to make the service more appealing by changing routes resulted in a 40% increase in patronage last year (Surveyor, 7 September 2006).
However, at the end of December, only 40% of the required number of passengers needed to keep the service beyond the trial were using the service.
The service started in November 2005 as a pilot, with a remit of linking key residential and employment areas in Norwich.
Current annual passenger figures are around 175,000, well below the 308,900 target, according to figures from 1 December 2005 to 30 November 2006.

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