Increased Fares and Charges

From 1 April 2011, new charges were brought into force, as follows:

Private/Group hire
£15 non-returnable booking fee plus 60p per mile (fuel included).

Newbury Excursion
From Axford/Ramsbury/Chilton Foliat £3 (unchanged)
From Aldbourne or Mildenhall £3.50

Scheduled Hungerford service
Aldbourne* or Ramsbury to Hungerford (Town Hall) - single/half fare 80p, return £1.50p
Chilton Foliat to Hungerford (Town Hall) - single/half fare 40p, return 70p

The bus will also take passengers to Cobbs Farm* or to Hungerford Garden Centre.

* (Fridays only)

Free Bus Passes

On the scheduled service to Hungerford on Wednesday and Friday mornings, free bus passes (issued to anyone over the age of 60) are accepted. This does not apply to excursions or other services.

If you do not have a pass but believe that you are entitled to one, application forms are available in the bus.

Group Hire

Charges for group hire are £15 booking fee (non-returnable) plus 60p per mile. Fuel is included in the mileage charge.

Hirers are reminded that all drivers must be authorised by the Committee to drive the bus and must be aged between 25 and 70 with no more than three penalty points on their licence.

Drivers who drive the bus on behalf of their employer, or who receive any form of reward from their passengers, must have passed a test to drive group D or D1 vehicles, even where their licence was issued before 1997.

London Congestion Charges

If you take the bus into central London, you will benefit from a 100% discount on congestion charges - making hire of The Flyer even more of a bargain!

Following the relocation of Ramsbury Surgery to the new building off Whittonditch Road, the Practice has arranged to extend the provision of the Community Bus to ferry patients to and from the Surgery.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the Flyer will leave Baydon at 8.50 am, reach Aldbourne at 9 am, and on to the new Surgery as before. Then a circuit of Ramsbury via Knowledge Crescent Bus Stop at 9.15 am, the Tree at 9.20 am and back to the Surgery.

On Tuesdays it will then collect at Froxfield at 9.40 am and Chilton Foliat at 9.50 am.

On Thursdays it will collect at Mildenhall at 9.40 am and Axford at 9.50 am.

Return journeys commence with Baydon and Aldbourne patients, then Ramsbury and other villages in turn.

If patients require this service, they must advise the Surgery when making an appointment with the Doctor. The Flyer will only pick up patients at stops where the driver has a named person on the Surgery list to collect.

When the Flyer goes to Hungerford on Wednesdays & Fridays it can now pick up passengers and drop them at the Surgery, but will not take them back. There will be no charge or need to book a seat, just tell the driver that you want to get off at the Surgery.

Pick-up Times
Isles Court 10:10 am,
Knowledge Crescent 10:12 am,
Saxon Forge 10:14 am,
The Tree 10:16 am.

A full day excursion is planned to
The Slimbridge Wetlands & Wildlife Trust on Monday 14 November.

The next monthly excursion to Newbury will be on Thursday 8 September 2011 leaving the Tree at 11.30 am and returning from Newbury at 2.30 pm. Pick up points include Aldbourne, Axford and Chilton Foliat. For this outing book with Muriel Lye on 520555.

If you or your friends and neighbours have ideas or views about where the bus should go, do make a note of them and let us know. Please contact either Peter Raper (521092) or email bus@ramsbury.org

The Flyer provides a regular service to Hungerford on Wednesday and Friday mornings, leaving Ramsbury School at 10:10 am and returning from Hungerford at noon.

From Friday 1 April, for a trial period, the Flyer will travel on Fridays from Ramsbury to Hungerford via Aldbourne. Additionally, The Flyer now runs on from Hungerford to Cobb’s Farm shop on Fridays. For details, see local advertisements, or contact a member of the Committee. The Wednesday routing is unaffected.

A new monthly service has been introduced running from Chilton Foliat, Ramsbury & Aldbourne to Marlborough on the first Wednesday of each month . Please see the poster for full_details, timings and fares. Please note that it is necessary to pre-book your seat if travelling from Chilton Foliat.

Timetables are available in the village, or email bus@ramsbury.org

There are fourteen seats in the Flyer so early booking can be important. If the trip is fully booked, your name will go on a waiting list. So if you do have to cancel your booking, PLEASE tell Muriel so that someone else can be given your seat.

To reserve the whole Flyer for an outing for a village organisation, or for a private group on a special occasion, you must first  check with Muriel whether the bus is available and give her details of your planned journey and timings.

You should try to find your own driver for the trip. If a member of your group is prepared to drive, give his or her name to Muriel. She will then check if your driver has had a "familiarisation drive" with the Assistant Co-ordinator of Drivers, Edward Judge. If not, this can be arranged before your journey. Under exceptional circumstances, we will try to find a driver to take your party but you should bear in mind that all our drivers are volunteers and we are not a cheap taxi service.

To complete the booking, you complete a simple form and pay a £15 booking fee. This is non-returnable. Mileage is charged at 65p per mile.

The bus key will be given to you on the day, plus a tank full of diesel. You pick up the bus from the Crown & Anchor car park and return it there after your journey. On return, record the mileage from the odometer, calculate the charges due - instructions for this are on the booking form - and take the balance with the form and key back to the Co-ordinator of Drivers.

The next Quarterly Meeting will be held on Thursday 10 November  2011, at 7.30 pm in the Meeting Room, Crown & Anchor, Ramsbury.

Aldbourne representative - Mike Hillas 540159

All telephone numbers are on Marlborough exchange (01672).

If you would like to help support the Flyer but do not wish to be a driver, please contact any Committee member who will be delighted to tell you about non-driver activities.