As you are aware, a year ago we expanded our Wiltshire Connect Demand Responsive Transport Scheme to cover the area north of Malmesbury, including Charlton, Hankerton, Crudwell, Oaksey, Minety and Ashton Keynes. This has been very well received, but one of the main requests made since then is for the scheme to be extended so that that Wiltshire residents can also use it to travel to/from Cirencester.
At the moment the only bus service that links this area with Cirencester is bus route 93/93A which runs approximately every 2 hours on Mondays to Saturdays. However apart from the journeys that serve Malmesbury school, these services are not well used and loadings of less than 6 passengers per trip are not uncommon. Those passengers could easily be accommodated on the Wiltshire Connect minibuses and so it has been decided that the most cost effective way to provide a public transport service to this area, would be to replace most journeys on the 93/93A bus service by extending the Wiltshire Connect area to include Cirencester Hospital, College and Town Centre. This should also give residents greater flexibility on when they can travel, with earlier and later journeys to/from Cirencester a possibility, as well as to/from Malmesbury.
This change will take place from 6th April 2026 and the area it will cover is shown in the attached leaflet. Just one journey in each direction will remain on ordinary bus service 93 and this will be timed to cater for students travelling to/from Malmesbury School (this is shown on the attached timetable). At other times, passengers wishing to travel to/from Malmesbury from the villages currently served by route 93 will need to book a journey on the Wiltshire Connect service.
Please note that this change will not affect Malmesbury area bus services 41, 90 and 99 which will continue to operate, albeit with some slight adjustments to the timetable, mainly to improve reliability.
There are two ways to book the Wiltshire Connect minibuses. The easiest (and preferred) option is to use the Wiltshire Connect mobile phone App and details of how to download this are contained in the attached leaflet and also on the Wiltshire Connect website at www.connectingwiltshire.co.uk/royal-wootton-bassett-malmesbury/ . However those without a smart phone can also book a seat on the bus by ringing our telephone booking line on 01225 712900 between 9am and 5pm on weekdays. Please note that whilst bookings can be made on the day, we strongly recommend booking earlier than this in order to secure transport at your preferred time.
We are currently preparing a leaflet to explain these changes to passengers and this will be distributed to passengers next week. However any help you can give us in publicising this change to residents in your area would be very much appreciated. We will also be holding a roadshow outside Malmesbury Town Hall between 9am & 2pm on Thursday 26th March, where residents will be able to pick up leaflets and obtain further information about the changes.
We hope that residents in your area will find that this change improves the public transport available to them and if you wish to know more about how the Wiltshire Connect Scheme works, please feel free to reply to this email or visit the Wiltshire Connect website at www.wiltshireconnect.co.uk .