Community Transport Project: Transport for Communities

Originally a scheme set up for rural communities, in response to a reduction in commercially operated bus routes and a lack of regular bus services within the rural wards of Neath Port Talbot, DANSA (Dulais, Afan, Neath, Swansea and Amman valleys) is a not-for-profit community transport organisation whose main aim is to bridge the gap between traditional community transport and commercial services.

RDP funding enabled timetabled services to run on pre-determined routes and an analysis of services run by DANSA in rural wards of Neath Port Talbot shows the following:

Service runs increased from 41,306 to 46,412 from April 2011 to March 2014.
Dulais Valley passenger numbers grew from 62,321 to 73,581 from April 2011 to March 2014.

Community Transport Project: Improving Basic Services in Rural Areas

DANSA developed a door to door ‘Ring and Ride’ Scheme which is a more flexible, demand-responsive service to bridge the gap between existing public transport services offered by commercial operators and an unmet need for suitable accessible and affordable transport provision.

The service is delivered through disabled-access buses and has developed to suit the needs of users with 17 ‘shopper’ trips which include 2 ‘eat, chat and shop’ trips per week and it is intended that all rural residents with a transport need would access the ring and ride service, including those requiring transport to access work or training, perhaps by simply providing connections to regular service routes.