Harrogate’s Sunday economy has seen a significant boost as customer numbers on its free Sunday buses continue to rise, The Harrogate Bus Company has announced. The services are now set to continue thanks to local businesses.
Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID), which was set up to attract more people into the heart of town by bringing local firms together to provide extra services, is to sponsor the Harrogate Electrics buses. This means free journeys on the electric buses will have continued for a full calendar year, and during that time, the numbers taking advantage of the free travel offer have risen by up to 90% compared with the same months a year earlier, the company said.
The Harrogate Bus Company’s General Manager Frank Stanisauskis, said: “When we first launched our Sunday Freeway free travel on our electric buses, we saw a very rapid increase of 70% in customer numbers compared with the same months a year earlier – and they continued to go up from there, reaching a rise of over 90%.
“That’s a truly amazing increase, with many choosing to leave their cars at home and use our zero emission buses instead. In 2019 over 40,000 people travelled with us on Sundays for free across the year – we look forward to welcoming even more on board as our Sunday Freeway offer continues.
“We couldn’t have made Sunday Freeway the enormous success it is without such wonderful support from our three sponsors Slingsby Gin, Harrogate Water and now once again, the Harrogate BID. On behalf of all our happy customers, we thank them all for making this possible.”
Harrogate BID Board member Bob Kennedy, owner of designer menswear store G23, said: “A key part of our role is to support local shops and businesses and drive footfall, and continuing our support for the Sunday Freeway free electric buses allows us to support a local levy paying business in an environmentally friendly way which benefits us all.”
