Catch the Bus Month & Needing Better

September is Catch the Bus Month, a national campaign celebrating the benefits of bus travel. For many people, buses are a lifeline—offering affordable, sustainable, and accessible transport. Here in Bude, buses are essential for getting around locally, but they should also connect us better to the wider region.

Why Buses Matter

During Catch the Bus Month, it’s worth remembering why buses are so important. They are great for being green – fewer cars on the road means lower emissions, cleaner air and less traffic. Buses are also much more inclusive, providing independence for those who don’t drive, including younger and older people. They can be really convenient too – with direct access to city centers without the need for waiting in in traffic, searching and paying for parking, or wondering how long you have left on your parking ticket.

But to truly unlock these benefits, we need better bus–rail connections. With more frequent services to Okehampton and beyond, Bude would be properly linked to the national rail network, opening doors for work, education, and tourism.

The Everyday Reality in Bude

If you live in Bude and want to travel further afield-whether that’s for work, study, health appointments, or leisure-the bus is your first step. But here’s the problem: our connection to Exeter, the hospital and jobs there, the rail network is shockingly poor.

Since the reopening of the Okehampton railway line in 2021, Bude should have been better linked to the rest of the country. Instead, we have days when we only have three buses to Okehampton station. That means gaps of up to six hours between services. Compare that to other towns our size, where buses run to rail stations every hour, and it feels like Bude has been left behind.

This makes it harder to plan journeys, reduces opportunities for young people and businesses, and leaves us more reliant on cars. For a town as vibrant and forward-looking as Bude, that just isn’t good enough.

A Handy Local Resource

If you’re trying to plan a bus journey in or around Cornwall, there’s a brilliant local website worth bookmarking: CornwallBuses.org.uk It brings together timetables, maps, and operator details in one place—perfect for finding the right bus without trawling through multiple websites.

Let’s Get Bude Moving

Catch the Bus Month is a reminder of how vital buses are—but also how much better things could be. If Bude had the same level of service as other towns, we’d see more people choosing buses, more visitors arriving without cars, and a stronger, greener local economy.

For now, we’ll keep making the most of the buses we have, but it’s time to push for the connections we deserve.