Canterbury's council asks if you would use a hopper bus linking the stations and the hospital. Its travel survey closes at 9am on 26 October and takes minutes.
Canterbury City Council wants to know whether residents would use a hopper bus: a shuttle running on a loop around the city, for example between the railway stations and the hospital.
The question is part of a travel choices survey the council opened on 28 September. It closes at 9am on Monday 26 October 2026. The council says the answers will inform how it puts its transport plans into practice. Source: the council’s announcement.
Why the council is asking now
Earlier this year the council published three linked plans:
- a draft Transport Strategy
- a Bus Action Plan
- a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan
It now wants evidence on how people actually travel before it decides how those plans are carried out. The council says it wants to know:
- how you travel around the district
- where you travel to and from
- your experience of using buses in the district
- your experience of cycling and walking in the district
What the survey asks
We read the paper version of the questionnaire, which the council publishes so people can see the questions first. It is short, with 16 main questions before the demographic section. Responses are anonymous.
Your travel now. Whether you have a car, how often you travel within the district, your usual way of getting about and why. It asks whether you drive to work, and whether you drive children to school.
Buses. How often you use them. If you rarely do, it asks you to pick up to three reasons from a list:
- ticket prices are too high
- buses are too infrequent
- buses do not serve your destination conveniently
- journey times are too long
- buses are unreliable or run late
- no real-time tracking
- not feeling safe on the bus
This is also where the hopper bus question sits, with a yes, no or maybe answer.
Walking and cycling. How often you walk or cycle as your main way of getting about, and what puts you off. The options include unsafe routes, poor or incomplete footpaths, having nowhere safe to store a bike, and not knowing the safest cycling routes in the district.
Improvements. One open question asks what would make you more likely to take the bus, cycle or walk. You can also give your home and work postcodes, both optional. The council says postcodes are used only to understand journey patterns and target improvements where they are most needed.
How to take part
- Online: the travel choices survey, by 9am on Monday 26 October
- On paper: download the paper version and post it, or ask for a copy
- Email: consultations@canterbury.gov.uk
- Phone: 01227 862000, 8.45am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
- Post: Consultations Team, Canterbury City Council, 14 Rose Lane, Canterbury, CT1 2UR
What it means for you
A hopper bus is a question in a survey, not a plan, and the council has put no route, cost or start date to it. But questions like this are how the idea gets a case. If you would use a loop linking Canterbury East, Canterbury West and the hospital, or you would not, this is the place to say so.
The survey matters for the coast too. It covers Whitstable, Herne Bay and the villages, and the bus section asks why people who rarely catch a bus stay off them.
Two other transport stories are moving now. The council’s levy spending plan puts £1m towards a Sturry Road bus lane, due before Cabinet on 5 October. Stagecoach’s fare changes from 20 September are listed in full on our fares page. For this week’s closures, see Canterbury roadworks.
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