Renewed efforts have been made to help elderly Forres residents who have been left unable to venture into the town centre after a bus service was controversially axed.
Stagecoach scrapped an hourly service between Forbeshill and the heart of the Moray town last year, citing a lack of demand.
That meant that the retired and less able-bodied residents there have to find alternative transport to the town centre when they need to go shopping.
Moray MP, Douglas Ross, has previously held talks with Stagecoach bosses in an effort to save some of the threatened bus routes in the region.
He has now suggested that a minibus which already covers Kinloss and Findhorn, and goes down to the Thornhill estate in Forres, could easily pick up passengers in Forbeshill as well.
Mr Ross has written to Stagecoach and Moray Council to air his idea.
He said: “I am still being contacted by constituents about this, some of whom had given up their cars and moved to this area because of its easy access into town.
“Many people chose to stay in Forbeshill because of the good links it had to the town centre, with an hourly bus service and then onward travel to other destinations.
“If we are to encourage more people to utilise public services then we need to make sure they are responsive to the needs and demands of our communities.
“It is farcical when you consider our cities such as Edinburgh have buses, trams, trains and planes, yet here in Moray we cannot provide the proper connections within our towns.”
A spokesman for Stagecoach North Scotland said: “The Forbeshill area of Forres was withdrawn from our commercial bus network over 2 years ago following a sustained period of low use. Like the local authority, we have limited resources available to us and schedule our services in order to meet the levels of demand we see in the local communities.
“We are unfortunately not in a position to be able to offer bus services to areas in which the level of use does not cover the cost of operation. It is however extremely encouraging to see developments in Moray through the M-Connect electric bus initiative funded jointly by Hitrans and the Scottish Government – a new service connecting Aberlour and Forres.”
