COURIER
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°His IN In the 1970s, long
before the current fashion for minibuses and midibuses, operators in Britain dabbled with innovative types of service using smaller vehicles. Today, only memories remain of the dial-a-bus and community-bus scheme of the time, but one service has not only survived but is flourishing.
The Border Courier was a novel solution to a number of local transport problems in Scotland's Border Region, that encompasses the country between Central Scotland and the Cheviot Hills.
With a population of little more than 100,000, spread thinly over 467,000ha, public transport and local distribution services in the Borders have often been difficult to justify in economic terms.
Car ownership in the Borders is the highest on the Scottish mainland, at 313 per 1,000 population, and the one-time network of conventional bus services has largely been replaced by important northsouth trunk services augmented by school and social contract services, supported by the Region.
One railway line passes through the region, but there are no stations: the nearest being on the East Coast Main Line, at Dunbar and Berwick upon Tweed.
Against this background, Borders Regional Council, Borders Health Board and the Eastern Scottish bus company evolved a new transport concept which was launched in 1979. The Border Courier is a network of four services combining a normal bus operation with a delivery service for the Health Board.
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CONVERGENCE
Borders Region has one general hospital, and in 1979 this was at Peel. Each of the four Courier services provides an inward journey from a part of the region, and converges at Peel at lunchtime, with the return journeys during the afternoon.
What distinguishes the Border Courier from other rural bus services is the pickup and delivery service for the Health Board. The service started with five Bedford as fitted with special Reeve Burgess bodies with 13 passenger seats in the forward part, and a compartment at the hack, with rear-mounted access doors, for medical supplies.
In the course of its daily journey the Courier stops at Health Centres and Cottage Hospitals to collect supplies and samples for Peel, or for other hospitals. During the lunch break, the supplies are sorted and the Courier buses re-loaded, often with bulk supplies from the smaller hospitals.
The principle appears to have worked well. Borders Health Board no longer needs to provide a regular van service collecting samples and distributing supplies, and people in some of the more remote corners of the Region once again have a bus service.
The frequent diversions to Health Centres and Cottage Hospitals arc a small price to pay for regular access to shops and other facilities.
A mark of Border Courier's success is the ever-larger buses being bought to operate it. The Bedford CFs were soon found to be too small, and were replaced in 1981 with Bedford VAS 17-seaters. Newer VAS buses were bought in 1987 and this year a Leyland Swift 21-seater joined the service.
The Swift is based at the Peebles depot of Lowland Scottish, the company formed in 1985 to operate the Scottish Bus Group's Borders services. The three other Couriers are based at the depots at Galashiels, Hawick and Kelso.
The Peebles bus operates Courier services on weekdays, starting at 06:00 with a schooldays trawl of local villages, returning at 07:30. At 10:05 it takes up its main Courier duty on service Cl, starting at the Hay Lodge Hospital in Peebles where driver Jim Johnston collects urine and blood samples and drugs for the new Borders General Hospital at Huntlyburn, near Melrose, which replaced the Peel complex.
Johnston is a regular Courier driver, working the service on alternate weeks. He has been on the Cl service for three years, and was delighted with his new Swift. "It's a great bus," he says. "Compared with the Bedfords, it's really nippy, and certainly much quieter." Leyland's midi-size Swift is an ideal chassis for this type of work. Lowland chose the 3,650mm-wheelbase version, which gives a vehicle length of just over seven metres. The bus was fitted with the 5.9-litre, 97kW (130hp) Cummins B Series engine and Turner 1'5.290 allsynchromesh five-speed gearbox.
This is the first Courier with a front overhang, and an entrance ahead of the front axle, but Johnston does not feel that it presents any problem. Although the access to some of the Health Centres is tight, he reckons that the overhang has enhanced the manoeuvrability.
The Reeve Burgess Harrier bodywork has 21 coach-type seats, and a substantial compartment at the rear. Although this was not full on the outward journey to Huntlyburn, the return journeys often carry bulk supplies for the local hospitals.
BIOHAZARD
From Peebles, Johnston heads the Swift towards Innerloithen, stopping at the new Health Centre to drop off a wheelchair and pick up samples and equipment. Each morning at his depot Johnston collects a small case containing a Biohazard Disinfection kit, in case of any blood or sample spillage.
Then into the remote and beautiful Yarrow Valley, and on into the busy market town of Selkirk. Here some of the handful of passengers leave the bus. It is 11:25, and the Courier returns at 14:00.
"I have regulars who make that journey every week," says Johnston. He knows both his passengers and the medical staff at the various centres. "I need to," he says. 'This is a service that relies on the personal touch and local knowledge."
Courier Cl reaches the Borders General Hospital at Huntlyburn at 12:20, shortly after the other three Couriers. The drivers unload their supplies which are sorted by Health Board staff. At 13:30 the four buses start their return trips.
INTERNAL MAIL
The Couriers are also kept busy helping other Regional Council departments. They carry internal mail for the Social Work and Water departments, and water samples for testing at the purification office in Galashiels. Lowland Scottish managing director Douglas Belling is proud of the Courier service. "I am surprised that it is still unique in Britain.
It is disappointing that no other authority has taken up the idea, because it is ideal for rural areas such as this. "We work closely with Borders Regional Council and the Health Board to provide the standard of service they require." Borders Regional Council controls and manages the Courier network, with major fmancial contributions from the Health Board as well as from the Education and Social Work departments.
Lowland's Douglas Felling explains: "We are operating the services on a fiveyear contract. It is a full contract, in that we are paid by the Region, and return all on-bus revenue to them. Every year. each of the buses used on the Courier services average 77,000km, and the four services carry about 30,000 passengers."
These 30,000 passengers represent only a small percentage of Lowland's annual carryings of 7.5 million — but the direct benefits they receive from the Courier services must he measured lit conjunction with the indirect benefits to local residents of an efficient and reliable medical support service.
ILI by Gavin Booth