Public transport for rural communities is being overlooked - The Yorkshire Post says

It is little surprise to see the body managing the Yorkshire Dales National Park voting unanimously to press local authorities to help transform access to public transport across the protected area.

People living there know that there is an acute need for a significant increase in the number of bus and rail services. There also needs to be improved coordination between rail and bus operators.

Yet reductions in services have continued, leaving a lot of our rural communities isolated. While also making it all the more difficult for people to visit places of outstanding natural beauty such as the Dales.

Transforming access to public transport across places like the National Park is also crucial for the environment.

The authority’s natural environment member champion Mark Corner emphasised how 82 per cent of the park’s five million annual visitors arrived by car, making ambitions of becoming carbon neutral by 2040 difficult. This also perpetuates the inequality of access to the park for residents and visitors alike. The health benefits, both physical and mental, of having access to glorious natural vistas that places like the Dales afford have been well documented.

On the point of visitors, improving public transport could be a boon to the rural economy.

That is why authorities need to take on board what the custodians of our areas of natural beauty have to say.