Bus company struggles to break even
6:06pm Wednesday 7th November 2007
A bus company is struggling to break even because it does not have enough passengers.
Tom Druitt, the founder of the Big Lemon Company which started running buses from Falmer station to Brighton station and back on September 1, will review the service at the end of the month.
He says the company needs to increase passenger numbers by 20 per cent to make it financially viable. If this does not happen he will look at making changes to how the service is run.
The former care home manager said: "In September passenger numbers grew very rapidly and since then they have been steady.
"In three months we should know whether people find it useful enough for it to continue. I have some ideas in mind if it is not working, for example, we are quite busy in the evenings so it may be that we stop having so many services throughout the day."
The service starts at 7.15am and runs every half an hour up until 7.15pm, before it becomes hourly, running until 12.45am. Tickets cost £1, or £2 for the day.
Mr Druitt added: "Obviously we want to run good services and discourage people from getting into their cars. If people do not find a particular service useful there is no point in it running. We are just experimenting at the moment."