Use of buses dwindling as fees blamed

Figures show the service for elderly and disabled people took 1,010,908 trips in 2014-15, compared with 1,286,418 the year before.

The service has been charging for trips since 2011 but bosses at transport authority Centro said declining use started before then.

However, a campaigner said she believed the £2 per journey charge at evenings and weekends had played a key part.

Pat O'Dowd of the Wolverhampton branch of the National Pensioners Convention said: "The charge for evenings and weekends is almost as much as the standard fare to go by bus, which pensioners get free with their passes.

"We have also been saying for a while that it is very difficult to get through to the call centre and book a time.

"Unless you're going to the bingo or shopping, it's not often possible to get the time you want.

"Ring and Ride is meant to be a door-to-door service and a lot of people need it to visit friends."

The service is aimed at people who cannot easily use conventional public transport.

Centro spokesman Mark Langford said: "Ring and Ride is an extremely popular door-to-door transport service for people who find it difficult or impossible to use conventional public transport, and while there is a long-term downward trend in its use this started before the introduction of the charge in 2011.

"While Centro needed to lower funding to Ring and Ride, which in turn led to it having to make savings and offer a reduced service, there are still more than 20,000 registered regular users who in 2014/15 took 1.01 million trips. The latest customer satisfaction survey carried out by Centro showed a 99 per cent overall satisfaction rate amongst users.

"In recent years conventional public transport has become much more accessible than before thanks to innovations such as low-level access and more space for wheelchairs on buses, which means holders of the English National Concessionary Pass who might previously have used Ring and Ride can now travel for free rather than have to pay. This in turn means there is less pressure on the Ring and Ride service and frees up availability for those who need it the most."

Adult fares for registered users are £1 each way, children 50p and infants free when travelling between 8am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday

From 7pm to 11pm and on Sundays from 8.30am to 3.30pm it doubles.

Cuts to Centro's budget meant £700,000 has been slashed from the grant to West Midlands Special Needs Transport (WMSNT), which operates the Ring and Ride service across Dudley, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall, Birmingham, Coventry and Solihull.