Changes to N46/N47 Fort William Services 15th July 2024
Service changes in Fort William
Highland Council supports a network of bus services in the Lochaber area which are operated on their behalf by Shiel Buses.
These services, especially in and around Fort William, have suffered from an increasing level of road traffic congestion. It is now necessary to update members of the public on the outcome of an extended period of consultation between Highland Council, Community leaders and Shiel Buses which reviewed this ongoing impact that causes disruption to these bus and coach services.
There is a strong desire to deliver a reliable service to bus users and it is necessary to make changes to allow for this to happen.
On the 15th July 2024:
- Our 502 Saturday service will depart Acharacle at 11am instead of midday.
- Our N46/N47 will be cancelled and replaced by 3 new timetables called the 46, 47 and X47. They are registered as separate timetables. The impact will see an increase in journey time, and to achieve this it is necessary to utilise the existing resources which will mean a reduction in frequency of buses serving Corpach and Plantation (Timetables below).
David Summers, the Council’s Principal Transport Officer, commented: “It is disappointing that these changes have to be made, but the on-going impact of traffic congestion on bus services in and around the Fort William area has been felt by the community for some time now. In response, collaborative consultation has taken place over the last number of months between the Council and Shiel Buses to explore how best to improve reliability and manage the impact of this using the existing resources available in Lochaber.”
Commenting on the changes Shiel Buses Managing Director David Phillips said, “We are proud to serve the local community and take pride in delivering a high quality service to our customers. However, with the increased levels of traffic congestion and the infrastructure challenges we face daily, changes are necessary to provide a service to our customers they both expect and deserve”.
Slight changes to school bus timings will come into effect on 20 August 2024 to improve the timings and local people will be informed of these amendments closer to the time.
Feedback and correspondence on the changes should be directed to the Public Transport Team at Highland Council. The team can be contacted by e-mail:
public.transport@highland.gov.uk
ENDS
Fort William Town Service Timetable beginning 15th July 2024
46 Service - Corpach > Caol > Claggan > Fort William > Plantation > Upper Achintore
47 Service - Corpach > Caol > Inverlochy > Fort William > Upper Achintore
X47 Express Service - Corpach > Caol > Fort William > Upper Achintore > Plantation > Upper Achintore