Changes to the West Midlands ring and ride service.

[VItraveller]

i love the West Midlands Ring and ride, which has now been rebranded to West Midlands bus on demand but what I don’t love so much is how they communicate changes to their users.
I got an email about changes on the 11th of November which are coming into force on the 1st of December and most of them are pretty good, you can now pay by card and not all of the vehicles will be honking great mini buses and will instead be somewhat smaller, one change stood out to me and that is the cap on the distance that you can travel which has now been limited to 5 miles.
Previously, the service was broken into zones and so a user could travel anywhere in for example North Birmingham, or East Birmingham and Solihull but now it’s limited to a 5 mile radius which I think will make it less useful for me personally and I’m guessing for many others as well.

 

[TheTallOne]

I wonder how that works in rural Vs built up areas.

Might not be much around, in a 5 mile radius, in rural settings?

 

[VItraveller]

I wonder how that works in rural Vs built up areas.

Might not be much around, in a 5 mile radius, in rural settings?

Even if there are but they happen to be in a different county You’re out of luck, many rural parts of Solihull are much closer to Warwickshire towns and villages and while this isn’t such a problem now as those people can travel into Solihull town Centre or Shirley, when these changes come in, I do wonder what will happen there.
I’m hoping that it’s not going to be a blanket 5 miles and some common sense is used but the service has been taken over by a company called via which is an external provider of transport services.

 

[TheTallOne]

Even if there are but they happen to be in a different county You’re out of luck, many rural parts of Solihull are much closer to Warwickshire towns and villages and while this isn’t such a problem now as those people can travel into Solihull town Centre or Shirley, when these changes come in, I do wonder what will happen there.
I’m hoping that it’s not going to be a blanket 5 miles and some common sense is used but the service has been taken over by a company called via which is an external provider of transport services.

Is it something you can go to your MP about?