Borgue Bus Service

In August 2024, a Borgue resident noticed that the 517 bus service from Borgue to Kirkcudbright was not going down to Brighouse Bay, as indicated on the timetable. Borgue Community Council queried this and got the following response from D&G Council:

The electric bus has a problem with the heater which is causing it to drain the battery and this affects how many miles the vehicle can operate. When the driver was using the electric bus to/from Brighouse bay the bus went down to 7% charge before it was arriving in the depot at Castle Douglas. This was before any other electrics were being used, e.g. lights etc. and he was concerned that he would not have enough charge to get back to the depot at Castle Douglas which is the only place where he has time to lay over and recharge. To ensure that we could still use the new bus we decided to stop operating temporarily down to Brighouse Bay until the heating issue was investigated. However, we have returned to using a diesel vehicle until this can be looked at further. It may be that we will no longer be able to operate to Brighouse bay on the school time journeys AM/PM or not use the electric bus on this route.

The parents have been advised directly by the School Transport Team of the situation and have been made aware that they will have to get their children up to the road end of the B727, which is less than half a mile to the amended pickup/drop off point, which still falls within school transport policy. The School Transport Team also received a call from a member of the public who uses the bus on an ad hoc arrangement and he was made aware of the problem with the vehicle.

Galloway Community transport are proving the bulk of the 517 journeys and the DGC bus journey is there mainly for school pupils to travel to/from Kirkcudbright academy.

Yours sincerely
Tom Flanagan
Transport Manager & SWestrans Policy Advisor
tom.flanagan@dumgal.gov.uk

It seems like this bus route is still an issue so we will follow up with D&G Council for further clarification of the situation.

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