A NEW bus service to help exhausted visitors to Appleby get back to the train station will hit the streets later his month.

Visitors to the town can get caught out when, laden with shopping, they struggle to get up the steep hill that leads back to the station in time for the last train.

Town mayor Frank Harland said the hill was surprisingly steep: "It's like in Switzerland. It's not the distance, it's the time it takes to get back up!" To help shopping-laden visitors, the new route will run in a continuous figure of eight from the station, around less visited parts of the town, into the town centre and back.

The idea will be particularly useful, Mayor Harland said, when events such as the horse fair were running. The first chunk of funding for the three-year project, £4,000 from Eden District Council, has already arrived and the total cost is expected to be around £120,000.

The service begins on July 21 and will run until August next year.