South West Coaches to discontinue 206 from Weymouth to Wyke Regis

But passengers, many of whom are elderly and describe the bus as a ‘lifeline’, say they would be willing to pay their way to help fund the service if it meant it could be saved.

The 206 from Weymouth town centre to Wyke Regis is run by South West Coaches with 12 services a day.

From Friday, November 25 the route will discontinued with Ian Cook, the firm’s Schools & Services manager, saying they were losing too much money on the service.

Mary Parfitt from Wyke Regis said she used the service “nearly every day” and added: “It’s a really friendly business, it’s family run and it’s a part of the community. I’ve spoken to loads of people and we’re all in agreement that we’d be willing to chip in even if it meant a reduced service.”

Another resident, Annie White, said: “So many people depend on that bus. It’s tough to walk up these hills every day at my age. We are all so sad.

“This is personal for me. When I first started getting the bus and got my pass, all of us in the morning would have passes and we used to pay half the fare. And all of us say the same thing - we would be happy to pay to keep the bus running.”

Robin Vokes, who also lives in the area, fears some residents might be unable to get out as much if the service stopped.

He said: “I didn’t realise they weren’t getting a subsidy on the route but I would say about 90-95 per cent of people on the bus are concessionary fares. It is sad - there’s an awful lot of (elderly)people and the service is a lifeline for them. Not only do you lose the users of the bus but, potentially, the knock-on impact is they become more housebound.

“There will be people who won’t be able to get to the bus stop in order to catch the number one (First) bus because it is a distance.”

Ian Cook from South West Coaches said: “It’s a commercial service so it is not subsidised from central or local government and unfortunately it is losing money. We are losing thousands a month running the service because fuel prices have doubled since 2020 and wages have gone up by 25% - and we want to put wages up especially given wider circumstances.

“Increasing costs are making the service unviable: (service levels) are lower than before the pandemic but it’s really sad that we’re having to discontinue the route because it is still a busy service. Everytime we run a concessionary fare we get 97p and that’s not the fault of the user but it’s a simple fact that even on subsided routes the Government have only increased funding by about five per cent.

“I would love to run this route, we know people use it, and it is really sad for us that it is simply too expensive to run in the current circumstances.”

A Dorset Council spokesperson said: “The bus route 206 is a commercial route and a town centre service so doesn’t receive funding or support from Dorset Council. When a commercial route is handed back it then becomes available for another transport provider to offer the service.”