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55B DDRT

A New Evening Service

Since April 2023, Glenfarg Community Transport Group has been running The 55 Bus – initially from Glenfarg to Kinross and then from Kinross to Perth via Glenfarg. From 7am to 7pm the hourly service has steadily grown in popularity. Now we are asking – is there demand for extending our service into the evening and can we use a different model – DDRT or Digital Demand Responsive Transport?

For the next four months of Summer and early Autumn 2025 we will be running a pilot project / feasibility study to see if we can answer these questions. Using our new Ride Pingo Booking App, the service will run on Friday and Saturday evenings. There will be three journeys in each direction between Kinross and Perth at roughly two hourly intervals, picking up passengers who have booked from stops in Kinross, Milnathort, Glenfarg and Perth. The first bus to Kinross will leave Glenfarg at around 19:40. and the last bus will leave Perth for Kinross at around 23:10. The last bus from Kinross to Glenfarg will be at around 23:40, as soon as it connects with incoming Ember service from Edinburgh that arrives at 23:39.

Reflecting that it is not a fixed route, the timings will not be fixed and the App will tell you when to be at your stop. The service has the flexibility to choose between routes depending on the number and locations of bookings. For example, if there are no passengers booked in Milnathort, the bus will use the motorway as a more direct route.

This is not a taxi service, and you will share your trip with other passengers who will also book to join along the way. If there is already a bus service in the area, we will not provide a service (so we will not run at the same time as the 56). As the service will be registered with the Traffic Commissioner, national entitlement cards will be accepted for concessionary fares.

We can carry up to 16 passengers per journey and booking is essential.
We will be asking our first “guinea pigs” to register to use the service and sign up for the Ride Pingo App. We will also ask a few passengers to use our existing telephone booking service (see FAQs below for numbers) so that the team at Community Transport Glasgow can also get experience making bookings on our behalf. When we are confident that the system works, it will open to everyone.

We hope to use the pilot/feasibility study to gather information and evidence of what works and what does not to design future services and make funding applications. DDRT works in many other areas, but we have to be sure that it works for us.

55B DDRT

Friday and Saturday evenings 19:30 to 00:00 mid-July to mid-November.

A: From August Ride Pingo is open to everyone to use. Please bear in mind that this is a new system and there may be teething problems. During August, if you are having problems, please email transport@glenfarg.org, leaving your name, date and time of travel, number of passengers, and a phone number, and we will make the booking for you.

A: You will book from “Kinross”, “Milnathort”, “Glenfarg” and “Perth” and you can then wait for pick up at any of our daytime 55 stops in these locations. In Perth, we will serve Princes St; Canal St; Perth Bus Station; Mill Street; Horse Cross (Concert Hall) and Edinburgh Road.

This service is designed to augment the current bus service, filling the gaps and it will not run at the same time as the Stagecoach 56 evening services. You use the App to request a lift, and you will be advised if the bus is available at that time, offered an alternative or be declined is at the same time as a scheduled bus service.

Approximate times of travel

Kinross to Milnathort, Glenfarg, Bridge of Earn & Perth 2000 and 2200
Kinross to Milnathort and Glenfarg 2340
Milnathort to Glenfarg, Bridge of Earn & Perth 2005 and 2205
Glenfarg to Bridge of Earn & Perth 2015 and 2215
Perth to Glenfarg, Milnathort & Kinross 2100 and 2300
Glenfarg to Milnathort &Kinross 1945 2125 and 2325
Booking Scenarios:
Example 1. On Ride Pingo you request a pickup in Kinross for travel to Perth at 20.00. The bus is available at that time, so it confirms your lift and advises you to be at your stop at 20.00. You also get reminders before travel. If you find that you are no longer able to travel, please cancel.
Example 2. On Ride Pingo you request a pickup in Kinross for travel to Perth at 20.40. This is not available because there is a Stagecoach 56 service at this time.
Example 3. On Ride pingo you request a pickup in Kinross for travel to Perth at 21.40. On this occasion there isn’t an exact match to your request, so Ride Pingo will offers the nearest match – 22.00. If you accept this your booking is confirmed. You also get reminders before travel. If you find that you are no longer able to travel, please cancel.

A: Single Fares / Return Fares:

Kinross to Perth £7.80 / £8.00
Milnathort to Perth £6.80 / £7.00
Glenfarg to Perth £4.80 / £5.00

Kinross to Glenfarg £4.80 / £5.00
Milnathort to Glenfarg £3.80 / £4.00

Kinross to Milnathort £2.80 / £3.00

National Concession cards (under 22s, disabled and over 60s) are accepted, as are credit cards and cash. From time to time, we may have some promotional fares available.

A: From mid-July, all you need to do is download the “Ride Pingo” app to your smartphone or device from your App Store. We will make an announcement here when the system goes live. The purpose of this pilot is to get the system working so please be aware that the first few weeks will be trial and error.

A: You can still book the service by contacting the booking team at Community Transport Glasgow using the Booking number: 0845 605 5955 or 0141 778 2042 (from a mobile to avoid premium rates).

A: We will be using one of the 16 seat EVM minibuses used on the daytime 23 & 55 service. This bus is accessible and can take one wheelchair.

A: During the pilot, we will be gathering information to inform funding applications to enable us to set up a permanent service running up to 6 days per week. We hope to demonstrate that there is a demand for evening services and that our model could be a more sustainable solution to big bus operations at quieter times.