The number of bus journeys in Rutland has increased by 20% since the launch of an on-demand minibus fleet, say council leaders. 

Speaking at Rutland County Council's scrutiny meeting held last week (June 26), Cllr Andrew Johnson (Lib Dem) said early data showed the amount of people using the service was a significant increase on the previous regular time service.  

The scrutiny committee had been discussing the topic after 'teething issues' with the CallConnect  buses had been raised as an issue by councillors from across the authority. The authority introduced the new system in the north west of the county in March. 

It will be rolled out across the county in August. The system lets people book a journey across the pilot area on an app. The routes and timings are not fixed.  

The new transport system has been introduced in a bid to cut the amount of money that is paid out to bus providers and also to try and increase the spread of public transport in the county. As part of the new system, some long standing regular services have been cut. 

The new service is free with charges increasing to £1 from next month. 

 Cllr Johnson said: "Where we have started the bus demand system, bus journeys are up 20% to a similar period, but of course obviously the data is growing. I'm not saying it is entirely flat, it's a growing patch of data. And interestingly where people are booking, approximately two thirds are using the app and a third are using the phone. So we're changing customer behaviour as well, which is what we wanted to make sure it is more accessible. So the initial signs are really good." 

There were no usage figures available to the committee, but a statement from the authority earlier this month said 1,500 passengers had used the service since March. 

The CallConnect system, which is operated by neighbouring Lincolnshire County Council, got off to a bad start, as the online booking app did not work correctly on the first day.  

Council leader Gale Waller (Lib Dem) said at the scrutiny meeting that as a result of CallConnect 'we have far more people using public transport than we have previously' and she said a lot of the early complaints and still current complaints were from people who wanted to turn up at the bus stop before for a regular service. 

She said: "A, we could not have afforded to carry on subsidising the bus companies for the fixed routes and B, the joy of the demand response system is when  it is rolled out in August every single villager in Rutland will have the opportunity to have a bus to go somewhere, whereas at the moment, in an awful lot of our villages, you cannot get a bus, as there isn't one." 

She said there was a continual review process of how the on-demand service is working. 

And Liberal Democrat councillor and scrutiny committee member Ray Payne said people did need to be educated on how the system worked. He said some people were booking a bus in advance and then deciding not to travel but not cancelling it. The bus space is then assumed to be taken. 

Cllr Waller said there had been an instance of one person booking the whole bus for their community but being the only person who turned up to travel. 

Chairperson of the committee Lucy Stephenson said the event made her 'eye twitch' that such a valuable resource should be mis-used.