Bus service1930

Clott's bus service in the 1930's - from Chesham to Beaconsfield and back, all day long

Unless we make a conscious decision to do so, we rarely think about public transport when planning our travel. The default is simply to get in the car and drive. Fortunately, most of us in Coleshill have enough money to own and run a car and are not in that sense dependent on a public transport system. But this is by no means true of everyone in our local area and, from personal observation, it is quite clear to me that a large number of people in Amersham and around (many of them elderly or infirm in some way) rely entirely on the bus service to go shopping, visit their friends or whatever. They do not have the money to run a car or the ability to walk very far and, without a bus, would find themselves confined indoors a lot more. The bus, in a strange but heartening way, provides their social life.

I say all this because, in today's economic environment, local authorities find themselves having to make large budgetary cuts and the subsidy provided to bus companies for local bus services – a number of which will not pass a profitability test but still perform an essential social function – will undoubtedly be looked at extremely carefully. Routes carrying few passengers, which would include the 73 through the Village, may well disappear.

My plea, therefore, is for us all to consider using the service we have before it suffers the same fate as the local shop and Post Office and is forced to close for lack of custom. It is all very well to bemoan the loss of something previously valued but nevertheless not supported in any practical sense. Once the decision is taken to close something, it is usually too late to resurrect it. The 73 passes through Coleshill three/four times a day and the timetable allows a good hour's shopping time in top Amersham before returning. You can also go on to Chesham, though the timetabling for the return journey becomes slightly more complicated in that case. And venturing further afield (the world's your oyster), the A30 will pick you up once an hour from Amersham Station and you'll be at Heathrow in 50 minutes.

I haven't even mentioned the environmental benefits but this is probably enough of the polemic! It would just be good if we could all think more about the bus as a possibility when we want to go somewhere. Obviously, it will not always be a realistic option but, where it is, let's choose it more than we do at the moment. We might regret it if we don't.

Dick Ware