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RING & RIDE REPORT

GREATER MANCHESTER ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORT – August 2014 (Ring & Ride – a registered charity) 1. Councillor directors are Chairman Doreen Dickinson (Tameside), Lynne Holland (Wigan), Roger Jones (Salford), Andrew Fender (Manchester) and Mark Aldred (Wigan) plus officers from Ring & Ride and TfGM. 2. The Ring & Ride service provides an essential door-to-door minibus transport service for people of all ages, including children, who find it difficult to use ordinary public transport. There are currently 75 high quality accessible vehicles run from 8 depots across Greater Manchester. 3. The service is principally used by people over 60 years of age and 75% of the users are female. People who use the service have a wide range of mobility impairments including mental as well as physical disabilities. 30,000 passengers are currently registered with the service and wheelchair passenger journeys account for 7.2% of all journeys. 4. Passengers travel more during the week than at weekends with Sunday being the quietest day. The service normally operates between 8am and 11pm with 44% of journeys made between 10am and 3pm. 91% of passengers hold a pass issued by TfGM. 5. 77% of its income comes from the 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester and the charity continues to face difficult financial and operational challenges, with a £1.9m cut in its grant funding over the last 4 years. Passengers are charged a fare of £2 (concessions £1) per single journey. 6. This year a 6 mile maximum trip limit was introduced to meet budgetary pressures. 7. Further cuts are being considered for 2015/16 including reducing the maximum trip to 5 miles; removal of the Saturday and/or Sunday service; increasing fares; reducing the evening service to 7pm; and reducing the number of drivers and vehicles. 8. Community forums have been arranged in all 10 local authorities during October and MPs, Councillors and users of the service are welcome to attend. 9. Further information / contact details: Tel – 0161 200 6011. Email - enquiries@ringandride.info Website – www.tfgm.com/ringandride