Rural Wheels

Rural Wheels is a unique community transport scheme that helps to address the issue of a lack of good public transport provision in some rural areas of Cumbria.  It provides door-to-door transport for people, when they want it and at reasonable cost.  The aim is to make better use of the various forms of transport that are available and help to tackle social exclusion.

The scheme is one of the transport projects developed through the Rural Partnership Programme, which is funded by the Countryside Agency.  The County Council has worked in partnership with many organisations to make the scheme happen.

The service can be used for a variety of purposes including: 

• Shopping
• Visiting the hospital 
• Visiting friends 
• Visits to the doctor, dentist, optician, etc     

Rural Wheels uses a 'Smartcard' to pay for travel and a central booking system to plan journeys.  Passengers need to apply for the Smartcard before they are able to use the scheme.  The Smartcard is used instead of handing over cash to the transport providers and the 'value' of the card can be topped up at local post offices, libraries, mobile libraries, etc.  Travel under the scheme needs to be booked 48 hours in advance by telephone so as to allow the most cost-effective use of the transport resources available.  Users may be asked to share transport. 

The Rural Wheels Co-ordinator for Cumbria County Council can provide you with more details of the scheme: