100 signatures reached
To: Stagecoach Scotland
Save the 77 bus to John o' Groats
This campaign has ended.
Keep the 77 service from Wick through to John o' Groats and Gills Harbour, due to terminate at Keiss only after 20 August 2018.
Meet with local representatives about the potential for an effectively marketed and advertised Caithness Circular tourist route linking Wick, John o' Groats, Gills Harbour and Thurso.
Why is this important?
From 20 August the 77 from Wick is to terminate in Keiss. Three villages between there and John o' Groats will lose access to any public bus service.
People will be unable to get to Gills Harbour via John o' Groats by bus to catch the independent ferries to Orkney.
Not only tourists are affected; locals will no longer be able to get to work. Several people who work in the area will be compromised.
Locals north of Keiss will be unable to attend medical appointments in Wick by direct bus link, or visit relatives in hospital or care homes there.
Children will not be able to attend extra-curricular activities.
Stagecoach maintain people will still be able to get to Wick from John o' Groats - they catch the Thurso service and change buses at Castletown. But this connection might only allow one return trip a day and will add hours to journey time.
No one travelling on the X99 bus from Inverness to John o' Groats will be able to get off at Wick any more. They will have to go on to Thurso, which is a longer journey, and they will have to hope there is a bus to John o' Groats at the end of it.
This will affect tourism, local businesses and local people.
This part of Caithness is remote enough without the bus provider making it even more remote. Not everyone has a car or can drive.
It will greatly affect the elderly and the disabled; vulnerable people.
