Raymond Blanc’s famous restaurant and hotel in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside may not seem like a classic bus stop. The property’s Michelin-starred seven-course dinner with matching wines starts at £350 a head, rising to just over £1,000 if you want to splurge on the fine dining. The last bus back into town at 1am, however, could save a couple an extra £1,000 on an overnight stay – or at least prevent an argument over who is the designated driver after washing down the Cornish lobster and lamb of the new season with a last glass of premier cru. While the hotel advises that some customers do board, especially if they arrive first by train, the bus service is primarily for staff. The hospitality sector, like many others since Brexit and Covid, has struggled to fill vacancies and the service allows rural businesses to tap into a pool of workers from the city. Route 46 which launched earlier this summer, is funded in roughly equal parts by the celebrity chef, the county council and passenger fares. Fares cost £3.50 one way, with discounts bringing the cost down to £2 for staff who travel regularly, and the seven-day hourly bus can be tracked online as it runs from Oxford through neighboring villages to Le Manoir in Great Milton about 10 miles away. Raymond Blanc outside his restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Great Milton. Photo: Jack Taylor/AFP/Getty Images The partnership saw not only the rebranding and extension of an unknown route to the luxury hotel, but also allowed Go-Ahead-owned Oxford Bus Company to invest in two new low-emission buses for the route. A decade of cuts had reduced the region’s patchy access to the city to one daily service. With Blanc’s subsidy and input from the council, buses now run hourly. The route, which follows the less affluent Cowley area of Oxford and the villages of Horspath and Wheatley, which have lost buses in the past decade, partly replaces a former Stagecoach route that was deemed unviable. The funding deal should guarantee services for at least three years – and allow other rural residents access to jobs in Oxford, as well as bringing people in the other direction to work at the hotel. Passenger numbers so far are said to be strong and have exceeded the bus company’s expectations. Beyond the business case for attracting staff and being a welcome addition to community connections, Blanc’s contribution is driven by another pressing need. Le Manoir intends to significantly expand its facilities and needs to reassure its village neighbors that these plans will not bring more traffic. A spa is planned, as well as a training academy. Sustainable transport helps it fulfill section 106 in planning applications – which details the steps a developer must take to reduce their impact on the community. The hotel has subsidized the bus route from Oxford to help staff get to the village. Photo: Sam Frost/The Guardian In what have been desperate years for buses, every little bit helps. According to the Campaign for Better Transport, more than a quarter of bus services in England have disappeared in the past decade and the rate of attrition has accelerated during the pandemic. From 2011 to 2019, total bus service mileage fell by 10%, then by 18% over the next two years. The fall was initially caused by the collapse of local authority funding from cash-strapped councils, which had supported services deemed socially necessary. Oxfordshire County Council was a case in point: in 2011, it spent just over £4 million on bus support. until 2019, the budget was zero. Paul Tuohy, chief executive of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “Local buses have seen funding cuts for more than a decade, which has left many places, particularly rural areas, without a useful service.” Since then, commercial services have been most at risk. Since the start of the pandemic, emergency government funding has kept many routes alive, but operators have pulled others. More could disappear when government recovery grants run out, after funding was extended until September. The pandemic has come at a tough time for a sector that had finally convinced the government to announce a proper national strategy and £3bn investment from self-proclaimed bus lover Boris Johnson. Unfortunately, the vast majority was then designated as emergency funding as revenue disappeared and districts were then forced to bid against each other’s improvement plans to win the leftovers. Subscribe to the Business Today daily email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter @BusinessDesk Oxfordshire was one of the relatively lucky areas, with £12.7 million. However, there are imaginative partnerships with Go-Ahead and commercial companies: its Oxford arm also piloted an on-demand bus service, PickMeUp, which eventually ran out of cash. Oxford Bus Company said the 46 to Le Manoir “demonstrates what can be achieved when key stakeholders work together”. Otherwise, it was a grimmer picture – as evidenced by the story earlier this year of a pensioner, Alan Williams, who stepped in with a £3,000 bid to fund the X53 route to his home in Bridport, which was due to be withdrawn from FirstGroup. However, the 78-year-old managed to save Sunday’s service after his generosity gained huge publicity. Campaigner Tuohy added: “Raymond Blanc obviously sees the business benefits of a good bus service, but they shouldn’t need private people to fund what should be a public service. The government needs to do more to support local buses so that all communities and businesses can benefit, no matter where they are.”
