Ballater: terminus for the Heather Hopper. Photo: Nick Bramhall

A national park bus service has been axed after it was discovered each passenger was costing the park authority £78.

The Heather Hopper ran through the Cairngorms national park in summer months, connecting Ballater and Grantown-on-Spey twice a day between May and September. The Cairngorm National Park Authority says in the constrained economic times, it can no longer justify running the service.

The decision followed a review of transport in the national park. This revealed only 42 passengers a week were using the service. The Heather Hopper was reintroduced in 2006 after an absence of ten years.

At first, more than 130 passengers a week used the bus, contributing to keeping a lid on the national park’s carbon output, but the early promise has failed to materialise and use has dropped to an uneconomic level.

CNPA board member and Aberdeenshire councillor Peter Argyll said: “It’s a difficult decision to have to take because it is so popular with those people who are using it but is not sustainable in these times of restricted budgets.”

The authority says it will look for better transport schemes can be supported.