‘Volunteers not enough to protect vital bus services’

It is not just those in rural areas who feel cut off from public transport but also some in towns and suburbs, the report from the House of Commons Transport Committee said.

The MPs called for “total transport”, which would involve pooling transport resources to deliver a range of services.

For example, this might involve combining hospital transport with local bus services.

The report went on: “That new approach could revolutionise transport provision in isolated communities by making more efficient use of existing resources. We recommend that the DfT (Department for Transport) initiates a large-scale pilot to test the concept in practice.”

The report, Passenger Transport In Isolated Communities, said: “Policy makers sometimes equate ‘isolated communities’ with ‘rural communities’, but we found that isolated communities also exist in urban and suburban areas.

“We recommend that the DfT drafts a definition of ‘isolated communities’ for use across central and local government, which should be used to target scarce resources.”

Launching the report yesterday, the committee’s chairman, Louise Ellman, said: “Old and young, unemployed people, those on low incomes and disabled people who live in isolated communities rely on passenger transport.”

Martin Abrams, public transport campaigner for the Campaign for Better Transport, welcomed the recommendations.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “We know that bus services are vital transport links across England. That is why the department is providing protected funding until 2016.”