Views sought on X1 bus timetable changes

Public views are being sought on timetable changes to the X1 bus service for the period April to October, which would see additional drop offs at the Standing Stones of Stenness, the Ring of Brodgar and Skara Brae.

The proposals would see the service run as normal between St Margaret's Hope, Kirkwall and Stromness - but once the bus has dropped off in Stromness an additional service to the three sites is proposed, to pick up and drop off passengers - before returning to Stromness and continuing the route as normal - with buses no longer dropping off at the Brodgar Road end as a result.

The proposed changes are part of a series of measures being taken by Orkney Islands Council, in direct partnership with Stagecoach, to manage some of the road safety issues that have arisen with large numbers of tourists being dropped off  on the Kirkwall to Stromness road at the end of the Brodgar Road.

The changes will have the additional benefit of providing an increased X1 service at the weekend - and increased transport connectivity to and from Stromness for those living in the world heritage site area.

Following earlier consultation, the number of days per week on which the 8S bus service runs is already being increased from three days to six days from April to October next year.

The X1 and enhanced 8S services are both run on a commercial basis by Stagecoach and therefore the changes will be made at no additional cost to Orkney Islands Council.

Laura Cromarty is the Council's Transportation Service Manager.  She said: "We've been looking at a number of options recently around increasing connectivity to tourist sites in Orkney, whilst addressing some of the road safety concerns that have been aired locally particularly over this summer. Increased rural connectivity on the X1 bus service not only helps to address some of these concerns but has the ancillary benefit of increasing the transport options available to those actually living in the world heritage site area too. Planning out Orkney’s public bus services is a significant challenge, particularly when they need to fit around school services too.  We're therefore grateful to Stagecoach for their support in developing these options - and look forward to hearing public views on the proposals."

The proposed timetable would run from 1 April to 31 October and can be viewed here.

Views on the proposals should be emailed to transport@orkney.gov.uk by 31 January.