Ferintosh Wee Bus
September 2024
See foot of page for news of major development in the service provided.
Following its creation in 1974 the Ferintosh Community Council (FCC) regularly found that its monthly agenda featured concerns regarding the provision of transport to and from the village. Residents in the FCC area have been poorly served by public transport for many years and indeed have lost bus services in the past. The current limited bus services are found to be useful only by a very small number of the FCC's residents. FCC had been exploring better options for a number of years and one interesting and innovative pilot was run during 2021 with FCC as a member of a partnership involving HITRANS, The Highland Council, Stagecoach and CSI Ross-shire. Residents provided overwhelming support that the pilot was deemed successful and that the service should be launched into a permanent service.
On Monday 28 February 2022, 1.30pm, at the Findon Hall the official launch of the Wee Bus service took place with Kate Forbes MSP doing the honours. Assisting Kate was Bruce Morrison, Secretary FCC, Cllr Allan Henderson (Chair of HITRANS, Chair of Communities and Place Committee in THC), local resident Allan Forsyth and driver Frank Holmes.
More images in Gallery below.
Issue 74 of the FCC Noticeboard contained the following report;
"Ferintosh Community Bus – or the “wee bus” as it has become known. We have passed the pilot stage of this now and we continue to see the familiar black and yellow bus travelling along the roads in the Black Isle. The official launch of the bus by Kate Forbes was well attended and there were many positive suggestions from this which has led to new trips for the bus, and residents continue to use the bus for many reasons. We welcome any new suggestions or routes as it becomes more established. We shall be seeing some publicity for this over the coming weeks, and we continue to encourage those of you who are not able to use regular bus services or require transport to give the booking team a call and they will be happy to help you out.
June 2022 One journalist's view of the wee bus can be seen here.
Autumn 2022 Journeys to Dingwall and surrounding areas became available! In the evenings and weekends with no Stagecoach services available, volunteer drivers were now available to collect residents from their homes to take them into the Dingwall area.
November 2022 An app was launched by HITRANS that enabled residents to manage bookings and track journeys on line. The Ferintosh Community Bus (FCB) has been chosen as the first bus service in the Highlands to enjoy this new facility and, after a few weeks, our passengers were now enjoying the ease of booking at any time and receiving reassuring prompts that the bus is on the way to collect them.
March 2023 The service was extended to allow pupils of Fortrose Academy who live in the FCC area to stay on after hours to access vital After School Study in the run up to their exams. Fortrose Academy and the Wee Bus teamed up to create this new service just for those pupils. Ordinarily, with the school bus leaving school at 4pm, pupils and parents had the unenviable choice of either not being able to access the extra tuition so helpfully provided by the teaching staff (4pm to 5pm) or for parents to make extra car journeys to collect the pupils at the later time. In agreement with Fortrose Academy and its staff's organisational skills, the FCB, with its volunteer drivers, now could provide a school run that collects the pupils at 5pm and transport each of the pupils directly to their home doorstep. Great feedback so far!
November 2023 Pupils in considerable numbers have been using the FCB after their After School Activities. As seen earlier this year, the pupils were first using the FCB after staying on for After School Studies in the run up to their exams. Now, all the year round, the FCB is enabling our students to stay on for their After School Activities as well. So an hour of gym or rugby or netball or football and then a wee trip on the FCB straight to their homes.
The story behind the funding for this service is very interesting and demonstrates the influence a well organised and consultative community council can achieve. The background can be found here.
The key test for this service over the next few years is whether, by running a small electric vehicle flexibly to collect and return residents to and from their houses, more residents will now find that this is a more useful public service.
A leaflet and FAQs explain the full scope of this new flexible service.
Facebook page for the Wee Bus.
Message from Becky Richmond, FCC's Chair:
Hi Everyone,
We've been informed by the Trustees of Communities in Motion CT (SCO53274) that CiMCT has signed a Service Level Agreement with The Highland Council to deliver the Wee Bus service in its entirety from Monday 2nd December 2024.
In the period running up to the 2nd December, CiMCT will be recruiting paid employees to deliver administrative and driving services. The volunteer force, that has been delivering and developing the Wee Bus service so successfully, will continue to be an integral part of CiMCT's resources and will work alongside the paid employees.
On the 2nd December, the 404 Bus Service (Tore - Culbokie) delivered by THC so helpfully in this interim period, will cease operation.
FCC is absolutely delighted to hear this news from our colleagues in CiMCT and we send them our sincere congratulations. The whole Wee Bus initiative was born from FCC's efforts since 2016 to find ways to improve access for its residents and it's a pleasure to see the project land safely in the hands of an incorporated charity overseen by the Charity Regulator, OSCR, in partnership with THC.
An added bonus arising from this THC contract is the possibility of providing employment opportunities in the heart of our community. CiMCT has let FCC know that anyone is welcome to register an interest right away by writing in to Bruce Morrison at communitiesinmotionct@gmail.com.
FCC's community will now have its own community transport service: run in the community, by the community, for the community.
Best regards, Becky Richmond
