Local councillors have been made aware of some changes to the ‘Ring and Ride’ service which will take place from this April (2014).

Ring and Ride is the accessible transport service which is provided across Greater Manchester to enable people to get about who would not otherwise be able to do so. Over the last three years Ring and Ride has been making ‘efficiency savings’ of 9%. This has included moving the call centre that serves us in Bury to a central call-centre in the city centre. I know some users have experienced some significant issues when this happened.

The new changes from April are:

1- Introduce a maximum mileage of 6 miles (in any direction) – though this will do away with any ‘cross border’ issues in Greater Manchester and remove the need for a special cross border service.

2 – There will be an exceptions policy for journeys of more than 6 miles. This is where there is no other accessible public transport option to:
– the nearest hospital
– the nearest metrolink or train station
– the nearest travel interchange
– the nearerst town centre
– other reasons at the discretion of the supervisor

3 – Ring and Ride fares will be revised to reflect the removal of the incentive for return trips and journeys over six miles. The booking office will operate 0800-1600, but the facility to book journeys on the day and make enquiries will continue as now 0800-2230 hours.

4 – The Travel Support Scheme will be withdrawn from 31 March 2014. Journeys currently covered by the scheme will be considered under the exemptions policy as outlined above.

If you have comments or queries on the changes please can you let me know so that we can let the operators aware of residents concerns.

Best wishes

Steve
steve@burylibdems.net

   Leave a comment