Cumbria Tourism’s recent Business Tracker Survey shows that up to 81 per cent of businesses are struggling to get their employees to work using public transport.


There are a number of factors resulting in staffing shortages throughout the county.

The lack of affordable housing and regular public transportation are compounded by the loss of European staff post-Brexit.

This shortage within the county is limiting business capacity and forcing temporary or partial closures for some tourism businesses.


To tackle this, Cumbria Tourism has recently taken on a brand-new worker transport coordinator, Natalie Fryer (funded by Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership).

Her role is to work alongside businesses to gather their requirements together to highlight gaps in provision and to work with the transport teams at the councils and transport providers to plug gaps in provision. 
By harnessing the power of collaboration, Cumbria Tourism aims to help to make positive change.

Following recent progress, the county has seen an additional evening bus route 6 between Windermere and Barrow at 11.10pm and has secured additional services both in the morning and evenings on Sundays.

These additional services went live on March 23, thanks to Westmorland & Furness Council. 
Cumbria Tourism has recently shared a Worker Transport survey, to delve into the challenges for workers who rely on public transport within the county.

The results of the survey indicate that 17 per cent of all staff working within Cumbria’s hospitality industry currently rely on public transport to get to and from their place of work. Only 26 per cent of businesses agreed that their business is accessible by public transport and a further 84 per cent of businesses said that a lack of public transport limits their ability to recruit staff.

Meanwhile, 66 per cent say it limits their ability to retain their current workforce. 
Cumbria Tourism is working closely with Westmorland & Furness Council and their Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP+) consultation to feed in the findings from a worker perspective and will also be sharing the findings with Cumberland Council to help shape their future plans. 
Rachel Tyson, head of partnerships and projects at Cumbria Tourism said: “We’re delighted to have secured funding for this new role. Having a dedicated worker transport coordinator will allow us to pull together the transport requirements of tourism businesses.

"From this we can then work alongside local authorities and transport providers to develop innovative solutions and hopefully improve public transportation for workers within the county.  
“Securing funding for this role is very positive and will be a big step in the right direction for the tourism and hospitality industry.

"Cumbria Tourism is working hard to not only promote existing routes but also make the case for route extensions.”