RURAL communities across Cumbria are celebrating after a bus service on an axed route was reinstated.

The plug was pulled on the Cumbria County Council (CCC) subsidised 106 service from Penrith to Kendal in November and hopes for its continuation were dashed when Reays, of Wigton, took over for just one day.

Thanks to funding from people and organisations along its route through Shap, Orton and Tebay, Stagecoach offered to run the subsidised service for one trip per day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for the next year.

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John Clasper, of Eden Housing Association - which has made a contribution to the project - is one of many people to have welcomed its return on Tuesday (January 27).

"We have a number of affordable rented housing schemes along the route of the old 106 bus service and it’s vitally important to us that our tenants, without their own transport, are able to get about," he said.

Chairman of Shap Parish Council, Jean Jackson, said although it was "unacceptable" that residents along the route had been left "completely isolated" without a regular bus service, she was glad the communities had raised enough money to subsidise it for a year.

"The key to keeping the service running is for regular usage and I appeal to everybody along the route to use the bus as much as possible so that we are able to demonstrate a case for a fully commercial service and keep the bus running indefinitely,” she said.

One woman from Shap had to give up her job in Penrith when the service was slashed.

Meanwhile, parishes along the route have backed a proposal from Ravenstonedale-based Cumbria Classic Coaches to introduce a service from Kirkby Stephen to Kendal.

The bus company submitted its application to register the service to the Office of the Traffic Commissioner on Friday (January 23).

It hopes to start up the service as soon as February 19.

The bus would run on Thursdays from Kirkby Stephen to Kendal and back again via Ravenstonedale, Shap, Orton, Tebay and Grayrigg.

The application follows the coach company's success with a Monday route from Brough to Kendal which began in October.

A spokesperson for Orton Parish Council said: "Given that the winter months are now upon us, it is very important to our parishioners that the service is restored as soon as possible."

Research by the Campaign for Better Transport reveals CCC cut spending on supported bus routes by 44 per cent in 2014 to 2015.