People's transport habits have changed since the pandemic, a panel has heard.

Rutland County Council hosted its previously postponed Bus User Panel Meeting on Thursday 19 January 2023 at the council chamber to answer public questions submitted in writing on local transport services.

The meeting was originally to have taken place in November 2022, but was rearranged and presented by transport operations manager, Emma Odabas who opened by saying: "We take pride in Rutland's stable bus passenger usage and there are a very high number of free pass holders, which never seemed to go up or down month by month. It was always the same people making the same kind of journeys to the same places, and consistent for a number of years. At that point, we were able to keep the bus network as it was, because it was deemed to be needed.

"Then along came the pandemic. Anybody who works in the transport sector knows the significant effect on transport that Covid has had in every way. And there are other things that have gone on in the world as well, for example increased prices of fuel, shortages of drivers, the cost of vehicles and vehicle parts themselves have increased. Put together, these put a lot of financial pressure on the transport providers. So we're in a scenario at the moment where we have extremely high and continually rising costs with reduced passenger usage, but with a lot of people's lives changed over the pandemic, and not just with transport. People now have different habits.

"Over that period of two years, the main safety message was to stay away from people and public transport, so that if you don't have to travel, don't travel. Now it's a very difficult scenario, people essentially do what they do each day, who they go to see, how they do their shopping, but lots of this is now done online. The question is, can you go backwards and get that same scenario back? We never really had a situation with overcrowded buses, but neither did we have empty buses, there was always that consistent usage. It is true that has dropped a lot – a lot of people haven't come back to their previous travelling habits. So, what we need to do now is to move forwards with the requirements for this area as they are now, not in the past."

The panel answering the 40 questions that had been submitted in advance by members of the public included: Emma Odabas, acting senior transport manager, Cllr Rosemary Powell, deputy leader and portfolio holder for planning, highways and transport and member for Whissendine ward, and Karen Newman and Paul Dunn, rural transport officers.

Representing the bus operators were Stuart Forrester, from Centrebus, Adam Barrett, from Bland's (Rutland) Ltd and Peter Nathanail, from Vectare.

Independent Councillor Rosemary Powell, cabinet member for transport, said: "We understand how important local transport services are for those who rely on buses to get around and we are eager to address the submitted public questions. Operating a rural bus network is particularly challenging right now but we are determined to provide the best service that we can. We hope that passengers will come along to the meeting and help us make positive changes."

The questions that were pre-submitted by Rutland residents for the meeting were all answered individually at the meeting, and those answers will be sent to the person who submitted them before being uploaded to the Rutland County Council website.

Rutland transport services is also looking for Rutland residents to help them develop and improve the local transport services. The bus users panel meets three to four times a year and helps to make changes to the network.

If anybody is interested in joining the Rutland County Council panel they can find more information by contacting the Rutland County Council transport team on 01572 722 577 or email: [email protected]