Forres e-bus town service gets green light

A GAP in bus provision in a Moray town is to plugged thanks to Moray's e-bus.

The Forbeshill area of Forres will benefit from five services a day following a decision by the council's economic development and infrastructure services committee this morning.

The number of journeys made by the electric vehicle between Forres and Aberlour is also to be increased, with a second daily service offered.

Moray Council officially launched the e-bus service in June following a successful pilot, with cash coming from the Green Bus Fund and the North Sea Interreg funded project G-PaTRA.

Up until now, just one return journey has taken place per day between the two communities, while also servicing Archiestown, Knockando, Dallas and Rafford.

Now, a second service will be added and the bus will also run five services within Forres itself.

Public transport manager Donald MacRae said: "The Forbeshill area of Forres has been without a scheduled bus service since the commercially provided bus service was withdrawn in May 2017.

"Forbeshill residents have access to the authority's dial a bus service but this does not meet every need and the consensus heard through various forums is that they wish to have access to a scheduled bus service.

"There is scope within the proposal above for the additional use of the electric bus to provide five return journeys between Forres town centre, Forbeshill, and Forres Medical Centre. "

The service is expected to come into play in the New Year and is predicted to be cost neutral.

The move was welcomed by Forres councillors, who said the return of the Forebeshill service would be well-received by local residents.

Cllr George Alexander also called for the service to continue beyond the health centre.

"I would urge people to think how simple it would be to do a loop around Mannachie Road, Falconer Avenue, the Grantown Road - it wouldn't take five minutes," he said.

However, committee members heard developer contributions from new housing in the area would soon be available.

Transportation manager Nicola Moss said: "We are waiting on the road link to go through from Mannachie Road to Grantown Road and once that is in then that provides the trigger for us to be able to use those obligation monies to best advantage in procuring some form of service for that part of Forres."

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