An online funding campaign has begun to help save a Dales bus service made famous when it featured on a “slow TV” show watched by almost a million people.
The BBC4 programme All Aboard! The Country Bus, screened last summer, featured real-time footage of the Northern Dalesman bus service 830 as it passed for 40 miles through the Yorkshire Dales landscape.
But the service – which links Middlesbrough, Darlington and Richmond to Swaledale and Hawes – will only run again on Sundays next summer if enough cash can be raised.
In a bid to save the service the Yorkshire Dales Society has launched an online appeal.
In a statement on the JustGiving page, campaigners said: “Over half the money to run the service has already been raised, but another £3,000 is needed to keep the wheels turning every Sunday and Bank Holiday throughout the summer.”
It said it wanted to raise cash “not only from people who use the service but also from people who might not use the service but recognise that National Parks are truly there for everyone to enjoy, not just the mobile and better off.”
Last year campaigners managed to save the bus, formerly known as the Wensleydale Flyer, thanks to a combination of local fundraising, and sponsorship from a West Yorkshire based stairlift firm.
Crowdfunding by Jane and Neil McNair of Low Mill Guest House in Bainbridge, and on-the-ground campaigning by Ruth Annison of Askrigg, brought the plight of the threatened service to national prominence.
Donations can be made at www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/yorkshiredales-society/NorthernDalesman2017
The YDS are raising money to run the Northern Dalesman bus from the North East to the Dales every Summer Sunday.https://t.co/25FYONdQ9D pic.twitter.com/cC0ZcyYEpe
— DalesBus (@DalesBus) February 18, 2017
