Rural Wheels
Rural Wheels is a unique community transport
scheme that helps to address the issue of a lack of good public
transport provision in some rural areas of Cumbria. It
provides door-to-door transport for people, when they want it and
at reasonable cost. The aim is to make better use of the
various forms of transport that are available and help to tackle
social exclusion.
The scheme is one of the transport projects
developed through the Rural Partnership Programme, which is funded
by the Countryside Agency. The County Council has worked in
partnership with many organisations to make the scheme happen.
The service can be used for a variety of
purposes including:
- Shopping
- Visiting the hospital
- Visiting friends
- Visits to the doctor, dentist, optician,
etc
Rural Wheels uses a 'Smartcard' to pay
for travel and a central booking system to
plan journeys. Passengers need to apply for the
Smartcard before they are able to use the scheme. The
Smartcard is used instead of handing over cash to the transport
providers and the 'value' of the card can be topped up at local
post offices, libraries, mobile libraries, etc. Travel under
the scheme needs to be booked 48 hours in advance by telephone
so as to allow the most cost-effective use of the transport
resources available. Users may be asked to share
transport.