Annual Report 2024-25

​Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company's Annual Report for 2024-25 is available to download here (PDF file).

• Dales and Bowland Community Interest Company (D&BCIC) is a not-for-profit social enterprise, owned by charity Friends of the Dales. It aims to improve people’s lives by increasing the availability and use of public transport in and around the Yorkshire Dales. This includes managing much of the weekend DalesBus network and promoting other public transport in the area. 
  
  
• D&BCIC managed two Saturday and eighteen Sunday and Bank Holiday public bus services into and around the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Nidderdale National Landscape during Summer 2024. Two Saturday and five Sunday bus services continued through the winter period.
  
  
• These services provide access to the Dales for those without a car, relieve social isolation, encourage healthy exercise, reduce congestion and pollution from excessive car transport and expand markets for local businesses. DalesBus serves a wide range of communities across the North of England, including West Yorkshire and the Tees Valley as well as North Yorkshire and the City of York. Although primarily designed to enable urban communities to access the countryside DalesBus also provides a much-valued service for local communities within the Dales who otherwise would have no public transport on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays.
  
  
• The company has its own independent board of directors who are all unpaid volunteers working alongside commercial bus operators, community transport operators, user groups, local attractions, businesses and local authorities to help improve sustainable transport into and around the Dales.
  
  
• 56,001 passenger journeys were made on DalesBus services managed by D&BCIC in 2024-25, an increase of 5% over the 53,388 journeys made the previous year. 
  
  
• The overall social benefit of services managed by D&BCIC in 2024-25 is estimated at around £4.25 per passenger trip, an overall total benefit of some £238,000, using the standard Department for Transport appraisal guidelines which factor in benefits such as reduced isolation and reduced congestion.
  
  
• Funding from North Yorkshire Council alongside other valuable contributions, enabled the continuation and development of the DalesBus network during 2024-25, and a further substantial grant will support further improvements in 2025-26. A long-term funding commitment is however needed from Central Government and the new Mayor of York and North Yorkshire to secure and develop public transport provision in the Dales, including the DalesBus network.
  
  
• D&BCIC is very grateful to all the passengers, service operators, volunteers, sponsors and donors who make the operation and promotion of DalesBus services possible. Thank you all!
  
  
• D&BCIC is currently seeking additional volunteers to assist with various key tasks to help maintain and develop the DalesBus network. If you might be interested in helping please email [email protected] as soon as possible before 22nd September 2025 to express interest, providing information about how you may be able to help, or to ask any questions.