Merley - Wimborne Bus Service Halted After Two Months

Merley loses new bus service to Wimborne.

Shoreline Buses have withdrawn their new Connect 10 bus service linking Sopwith Crescent, Merley, with Wimborne Town after just two months since the service began, even though it was scheduled to trial for six months. Lack of passengers meant it was just not possible to carry on running it, and if the route had not been pulled the whole company could have faced going out of business, claims the owner. The service needed to carry one hundred people a day to break even but only managed forty passengers on average daily.

Did Shoreline give the service enough of a chance to succeed, or did they close it down too early? Leaflets were distributed to MerleySopwith Crescent residents and details of the service placed at bus stops along . Was that enough? It doesn’t look like it. Perhaps it could have been better publicised? Could a succession of leaflet drops, over a period of the proposed six months, and weekly advertising in the local papers have helped promote the service more? Or maybe the local council could have been roped in to develop a scheme where people were encouraged to use public transport more often instead of their private cars, which would have certainly helped with the amount of cars on our roads?

Do you think this bus service could have been saved?