If you live in Lerwick, Shetland, or south of it, you find that there is a superb bus service. If you live north or west of Lerwick then things are vastly different.
Lerwick to the airport at Sumburgh, the bus service runs seven days a week, up to Lerwick and back again, on and on, often with very few, if any people aboard.
Here in Hillswick, thirty-five miles north of Lerwick where I live, things are not the same. There are no buses on a Sunday at all. If you want to go anywhere on a Sunday you either drive yourself, get a lift or walk - that's it - unlike Lerwick, where the buses go round and round, or back and forth to the airport.
During the week we have a minimal service, down to town in the morning and back home in the afternoon. Six days a week there is a bus leaving here at 07.30, getting to Lerwick at about 08.50 and five days a week there is a bus leaving here at 10.00 which gets in at 11.10 - but not on a Wednesday - oh, no, there is a bus into town, getting you in at 08.50, and leaving town at 17.10. A large gap of approximately eight hours in between. Very nice if you want to watch the tide come or go. It's similar Monday, Friday and Saturday except there's a 10.00 bus down to town but even that can mean a long, expensive day out. There is a bus from Brae, coming in in the morning for visitors (three months a year) but nothing to take them away later in the day.
Why? Why is this the situation when we need the use of public transport too. Some of the people using the airport come from up here. Some of the people living up here would benefit by being able to go shopping on a Sunday. Why is there no similar service for us, why does Lerwick and south of Lerwick enjoy a massively better service. Some of us up here do not drive for a variety of reasons, as is true of those south but they have a decent bus service looking after them while we do not.
And being a Wednesday today, after a hospital appointment I caught the 11.30 to Brae and walked for about six miles with my thumb out. I got a lift all the way home from there from a very kind neighbour but that is not possible or suitable for everyone. What does the rest of our society do when those at the south end are going up and down on the bus?
The bus companys obviously cant justify running more buses than what already services Hillswick. Maybe not enough people using them or whatever, plus the south mainland population is way higher than north. There is no town service buses in Lerwick on a Sunday, just 8-5 Monday to Saturday, if you dont like where you live, why did you move there?
ReplyDeleteI'm very happy living where I am but there are other people that find the bus service, or lack of, restrictive. I guess it is also restrictive to the area.
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