Despair at Ring and Ride service being cut

Ring and Ride service cut

Ring and Ride, which provides a door-to-door minibus service for people of all ages who find it difficult to use ordinary public transport, will be cutting its service to a six mile radius.

From 1 April this year the Ring and Ride service will be merging the district cross boundary service with the main Ring and Ride service. This means that passengers can make journeys of up to six miles in Greater Manchester – including travel into neighbouring districts.

The planned changes are a cause for concern to people in Littleborough who use the service to travel to Middleton to attend the Moving on Scheme. The scheme, which used to be based in Rochdale, provides users with the chance to learn new skills as well as offering support to people with disabilities.

Kath O’Donnell, who has been registered disabled since the age of 26, uses the Ring and Ride service to attend Moving On in Middleton. She said: “It was bad enough to lose the Moving On Scheme in Rochdale and having to travel to Middleton. Now the final straw is the transport being cut so the people from Rochdale will not be able to get to their lifeline, Moving On.”

Ring and Ride services are operated by Greater Manchester Accessible Transport Limited (GMATL). Income for GMATL comes from a grant provided by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM).

It is understood that changes to the service are underway due to unprecedented budgetary pressures. TfGM currently has to make significant savings of more than £19 million over the next two financial years.

Bernard Rowen, Managing Director of Greater Manchester Accessible Transport Limited, which runs Ring and Ride services, said: “Like all publicly funded services, Ring and Ride is under real budgetary pressure. We’ve looked very closely at where we can make savings that still allow us to run the vast majority of existing journeys.

“Ring and Ride is essentially a local service and our average trip is around three miles long. We estimate that around 97% of our passengers make journeys of under six miles.

“I absolutely sympathise with the situation these passengers find themselves in. Just as the Rochdale ‘Moving On’ service had to relocate to make financial savings, we are now in the same situation.

“We have written to those passengers we know are affected – and if anyone has any concerns they can discuss them with our staff so we can look into alternative transport options for them.”

Once the changes are in place, Ring and Ride services will continue to run seven days a week, from 8am to 10.45pm and will still be able to cater to the vast majority of its passengers’ journey requirements.

Transport for Greater Manchester also runs a travel vouchers scheme for people who are not able to use ordinary buses, trains or Metrolink services and who have serious walking difficulties or are registered blind. They can be used to pay for taxis and for travel on accessible bus services such as Ring and Ride, community transport and Local Link.