Last updated 05:41, Friday, 19 September 2008

Cumbria is on the brink of a spectacular regeneration. Thousands of new homes are earmarked for Penrith; there’s a rebirth in the making out west where there are plans to redefine and redevelop Sellafield and West Lakes; Workington has a glossy new £35m town centre; and an even more expensive renaissance is slowly taking shape for Carlisle.Rob Johnston, chief executive of the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce said transport providers should look at redrawing services, using imagination and initiative on how they are provided.James Mellor, commercial manager for Stagecoach buses which operates services across the county, said Cumbria could follow the example set by another rural county, Lincolnshire.Raymond Archer is part of the Cumbria Voluntary Social Car Scheme where volunteers provide transport in their own cars for those unable to use buses and trains.

The city is now home to the country’s latest university which is expected to bring much-needed new talent and money to the region.

But at a time when north and west Cumbria look set to make a giant leap forward, travelling to and within the area is getting harder.

New cross-country rail timetables will see the loss of through services from Carlisle to the West Country, Bournemouth and Aberdeen.

An added snub to the county is the fact that the new high-speed train from London to Glasgow will not be stopping in Carlisle. Preston is rated more important.

Meanwhile, Cumbria County Council is looking to axe loss-making rural and off-peak bus services.

In the past there has been a tendency for some routes threatened with closure to be reprieved, not by weight of argument, but by numbers of objectors.

Now the county council is planning to implement ‘key criteria’ (such as providing a link to health provision, employment and essential shopping services) for operating routes more strictly and objectively.

Some of the routes under threat carry just a handful of travellers on each journey and actually cost the council £5 a passenger.

The early morning Keswick-Seatoller via Borrowdale service carries just four passengers at a cost to the authority of £23.25 a head.

Critics say that cutting evening services amounts to a social curfew, especially for the young and elderly who are most likely to need the buses.

More pressure would be placed on rural youngsters, inexperienced motorists, to drive at night, increasing the risk of more accidents on the county’s roads.

And regular, reliable bus links help rural communities feel connected to the rest of the county and a part of wider society.

Many companies hope to lure the best staff to work for them by advertising the obvious attractions of the region.

But being able to enjoy and experience the wilder, more rural parts of the county is becoming harder and more restricted without access to private transport.

“It is difficult to attract businesses to Cumbria because of the distance from market, but a lack of public transport doesn’t help,” he warned.

“If you want people to live outside of town and work in towns and cities, not having transport run at certain times negates flexible working that a lot of people are looking for.

“It is almost impossible to do business in Cumbria outside of Carlisle without private transport.

“If you are travelling from outside the county and want to go to Keswick and don’t drive, what sort of planning do you have to do?”

The Carlisle Renaissance project is intended to lead to a more Continental, cafe-style way of life, providing more culture and events in the city.

But there are concerns this would be hindered by a transport curfew.

Critics warn that if evening events in and around the city were only available to those living in reach of a few remaining bus or train services or those who could afford a taxi home, there would be a small and select audience.

Alistair Grey argues that now is the perfect time to review Cumbria’s overall bus strategy rather than making piecemeal cuts and slight alterations.

The secretary of the Workington Transport Heritage Trust said the county council had improved many routes in the past, but now needed to overhaul the services – after asking users for their opinions.

He said: “To give the county council credit, it resurrected a lot of services in the late 1990s.

“But now is the time to overhaul the whole system, now there is so much redevelopment going on.

“It could provide more travel opportunities and generate more money for the county.

“For example, when many of the timetables were drawn up, Sunday was a day of rest, now it is just another shopping day.

“There is room for looking at the total spend in the county and even reassessing some of the existing spending the county council is prepared to continue with.

“I as a taxpayer don’t want it wasting money on things that are not necessary.

“It should be consulting with people and looking for initiatives.”

One way of improving services and income, he said, would be to make the Maryport to Cockermouth route hourly, rather than two-hourly, using the same staffing, but making the route more direct.

And he said there was no reason why Cumbria should not have a Passenger Transport Authority – a joint authority of district councils to set policies and budgets for public transport and ensure that it was co-ordinated.

There they have redrawn bus services to provide ‘spine’ services, linking the main towns, with ‘feeder’ routes providing guaranteed connections.

He said the company continually reviewed all its services and met county council representatives at least once every two months, but added: “There could be value in overhauling all the services.

“Services, particularly in Cumbria, have evolved over the years, with bits tacked on here and there.

“It could be worth working from a blank sheet of paper.”

But he dismissed claims that the age of broadband, WiFi, and working from home was killing off the demand for buses.

“The horror stories that bus services are in decline are simply not true.

“There will always be a good, solid commercial network in the county.

“Those services to villages will have to find something more imaginative to link into core services.”

Mr Grey added that he welcomed the project to re-establish the Keswick-Penrith railway line as an initiative that could bring extra money into the county as well as improving transport facilities.

Rail services in the county were savaged in the sixties and seventies and now Carlisle is served by just five lines – north to Glasgow; down the west coast to Barrow and Carnforth; east to Brampton and Newcastle and south to Penrith and London or to Settle and Leeds.

Oxenholme station’s full name is Oxenholme Lake District – but you can only travel on from the platform to Windermere.

There are schemes promoted by groups to reinstate the Keswick-Penrith line and the Waverley line from Carlisle to Edinburgh.

But while there have been studies and talks about reopening these lines, that is as far as the projects have progressed.

It remains to be seen whether they will run out of steam.

Cedric Martindale has been battling for years to reinstate the Keswick-Penrith line.

“It is possible to get it reopened in five years, probable in five to seven years,” he insisted.

Mr Martindale, a Carlisle-based civil engineer, heads CKP Railways Ltd which is battling to reopen the line. The group recruited consultants to prepare a business case measuring the economic benefits of the scheme as an integral part of the national rail system.

The report said that passenger usage of the line could rise to 480,000 per year providing an extra £3.8m a year for the county economy.

But Mr Martindale said the county council also had to back bus routes that provided a linked service.

He added: “When you get on a train in the West Midlands there is a map over the door showing you where you can catch the nearest bus.

“Bus services are regular and are co-ordinated.”

Once the Keswick-Penrith route was operating, he reckons it would only be a question of time before the line ran further west to Cockermouth and Workington, as it did more than half a century ago.

Mr Martindale predicted: “Once we have put out a tantalising line to Penrith, there will be a lot of noise to take it out west.”

Apart from the economic benefits that public transport can provide, there is also a social need.

These tend to be elderly and infirm people, but Mr Archer, who lives in Whitehaven, says many people need his service because there are no suitable buses for them.

He explained: “I take one old lady to Cockermouth once a week to help in a charity coffee morning.

“Because there is only one bus a day, she would take a taxi costing £40.

“She said she has friends who could take her, but she does not want to impose on them.

“You can catch a bus to Frizington, but it does not go another 400 yards up the road to Arlecdon or Rowrah.”

Some rural organisations, such as the Northern Fells Group based in Caldbeck and involving surrounding villages, run their own minibus.

This can be used by locals to ferry groups or individuals, whether it is pensioners to health appointments or coffee mornings, teenagers to Carlisle for a night out, or other groups for social meetings or events.

At a time when there are concerns about carbon footprints and CO2 emissions and rising oil costs prices, the pressure is on all local authorities to oversee a transport policy that benefits the environment.

But it is becoming increasingly difficult for the county council to support loss-making bus routes, while businessmen fear the changes in our national rail service could cost the county’s economy.

Mr Johnston described the west Cumbrian rail line as Dickensian and called for the whole role of public transport in the county to be re-evaluated.

“We need to make it an attractive system that people want to use, rather than have to use,” he said.

“We do need public transport and if you are going to play Cumbria’s card of being an attractive, safe, healthy place to live we should put a public transport in to build on that.

“We should look at what the role of public transport is in work and social life, that is a major shift from what we have at the moment.

“Maybe one of the things we should be doing is getting ahead of the game and look at new methods of transport that do not use carbon fuel, like a fleet of hydrogen-powered buses.

“We should be looking at doing something that leads the pack.

“If we are having a renaissance in business and economic opportunities, we should lead in transport as well.

“I recently judged a challenge for young people to design the next generation of transport for Cumbria and almost none of them used buses.”