The Cairngorms National Park Authority is to stop funding the Heather Hopper bus service which currently runs in the summer months. The heavily-subsidised service, which runs twice a day in the summer and connects Ballater to Grantown on Spey with connecting buses to Aberdeen, only carried an average of 40 passengers a week last year.
The National Park said it would consider how best to use funds to provide transport. As well as making the Park more accessible, one aim of the Heather Hopper service was to reduce car use and lower the carbon footprint of the Park.