A number of publicly-funded bus services will be withdrawn from next week after Aberdeenshire council cut their £200,000 support.
The authority announced in March it would be axing some subsidised journeys, focusing on routes that had suffered a drop in passenger numbers.
Among those being stopped from Monday are two Sunday evening services on the X17 route between Aberdeen and Westhill.
Aberdeenshire Council’s head of transportation, Ewan Wallace, said: “The journeys and services being withdrawn simply weren’t being used often enough to justify the money being spent on them.
“We keep the performance of the services we support under review and the funding that is being withdrawn is based on this work.
“Other services will see under-used elements reduced, while retaining those parts of the service which continue to be popular and well used.
“These changes have to be introduced in May to ensure we remain within the budget allocated.”
The full changes as published by the council are as follows:
Journey/Service Withdrawals
Service 220 (Kirkton of Skene/Elrick – Aberdeen Royal Infirmary); Monday to Friday peak and inter-peak service
Service 252 (New Deer – Mintlaw – Fraserburgh); Monday to Friday peak return journey
Service 210 (Tarland – Aboyne); Monday and Wednesday inter-peak journeys
Service 105 (Banchory – Rickarton – Stonehaven); Monday and Thursday inter-peak service
Service 108 (Muchalls – Chapelton Park & Choose); Tuesday and Thursday schooldays inter-peak return journey
Service 103 (Cookney – Aberdeen); Monday to Friday peak return journey
Service X17 (Aberdeen – Westhill/Elrick); two evening journeys on Sundays
Service 9 (Laurencekirk – Montrose Railway Station); Friday and Saturday evening journey
Service Reductions
Service 204 (Strachan/Banchory – Aberdeen); Tuesday and Friday inter-peak return journey withdrawn but weekday peak return journey retained
Service 41A (Inverurie – Huntly); Monday to Friday non schooldays return journey withdrawn but schoolday return journey retained
In the case of service 252: New Deer – Mintlaw – Fraserburgh (see terminations), Central Buchan A2B dial-a-bus will commence operation 30 minutes earlier than at present, allowing passengers currently travelling on service 252 to use the dial-a-bus service to connect at Mintlaw with alternative services to/from Fraserburgh.
Please note: this story has been amended to clarify that the services being withdrawn are only those subsidised by the local authority and not, as we reported incorrectly earlier, commercially-operated routes such as the X17. We apologise for any confusion caused to passengers.
