4/8/2010 - County council puts on second shuttle bus

A second temporary shuttle bus is now running in west Cumbria to minimise disruption caused by essential resurfacing works on the A597 at Harrington.

Since Monday (August 2) Cumbria County Council has been funding a service giving three trips a day from High Harrington to Harrington village to allow local residents to access essential services such as the Post Office.

The bus is running at 10am, 1pm and 3pm to link High and Low Harrington and return times are being kept flexible to suit the needs of people using the service.

The county council is already providing a popular temporary shuttle bus (service 53) –that has been carrying around 200 passengers a day - from the Moorclose and Salterbeck areas of Workington to the town’s bus station.

But following discussions with local people it was decided to introduced this second shuttle to better tailor the temporary arrangements to the local community’s needs.

As a result of major resurfacing improvements being carried out on the A597 at Harrington the road is closed, so the usual Stagecoach 30/31 service between Maryport, Workington and Whitehaven is being diverted via the A596.

The shuttle services have been introduced to cater for people temporarily omitted from the route by the diversion. 

Cllr Tim Knowles, Cumbria County Council’s cabinet member for passenger transport said: "The temporary service 53 shuttle bus is working well while these vital improvements are being carried out on the A597, but after talking to local people it was decided another shuttle was needed to make sure all bus passengers inconvenienced by this road closure are still catered for." 

As soon as the A597 road closure ends the 30/31 will revert to the normal route operating every 15 minutes via Harrington and every 30 minutes via Moorclose and Mossbay Road.

ENDS

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