What was the Wigglybus?
The Wigglybus was an innovative rural bus service which has a core circular route but will leave it to visit villages and hamlets if requested. Passengers rang a call centre to book the bus and, within its demand responsive area, it would pick them up as close as possible to their front door. The bus was satellite tracked and the bookings used routeing software which sent a list of pick ups to the driver. There was a Travel Club which offered discount fares and kept regular users in touch with all the service developments from 1999 to 2005.The original Wigglybus proposal was made in 1998 and approved and implemented in 1999 with a grant from the Government's Rural Bus Challenge Fund. The first of the three Wigglybus routes started operation on the 28 May 1999 with the second and third following shortly behind on the 24 June and the 6 July. The service was officially launched by the Rt. Hon. Glenda Jackson MP on the 19 July, at a special ceremony at Woodborough Garden Centre near Pewsey in Wiltshire.
The Wigglybus scheme successfully pursued two key goals:
to provide an attractive transport alternative for those who already own a car
to better meet the needs of people who do not own cars
The basic approach was to replace a very infrequent and unreliable service which served many scattered communities with a "demand responsive" service. This was designed to cover three areas in Pewsey Vale with three buses each running an hourly service. Thus the start time is fixed but places in the area are served at slightly different times according to the pattern of bookings. The buses each followed a "core" route pattern but deviated to serve settlements off the main route when requested by phone. There were other services of this type in Europe, but none in Britain and none in Europe with such ambitions to attract a wide range of users and with such a wide combination of features. These included bus comfort and ride quality, rack to carry two bikes at the rear, a fares discount "Travel Club", satellite tracking, personal pick up points, low floor and easy access for wheelchairs and buggies.
There was strong community involvement through a local voluntary sector partner, the Pewsey Vale Transport Appraisal Group - PVTAG later joined by the Calne group - Calne CAT. The Council has since dropped community involvement in the Wigglybus and changed its name to "Connect2Wiltshire".
In 2000 the Wigglybus won the prestigious "Bus in the Countryside" award at the bus industry's "bus oscars".
 |
 |
Further information can be found in our reports on the service. The "End of Term Review" is the most recent of these and you can download a copy in pdf format by clicking here.
If you experience any problems with this download, please e-mail us by clicking here
Click on the Wigglybus to go back to the home page!
