Yeh, it's patchy to poor in rural areas that I've visited. I was camping last year at Watlington ridgeway campsite and wandered down to the Carriers pub to take essential supplies on board. I got talking to a lad at dinnertime, who was looking after his wife full time and had come in for a meal...and probably a bit of a chat with friends. Anyway, he was telling me that his village was about 5 miles away and the people who had pensions would travel in by bus to collect their pensions from the Post Office in Watlington (their own PO had closed.) Then the bus service was withdrwan, so how the, possibly, frailer members of our society manage is anyone's guess. They might get a lift or are probably forced to get a taxi, unless they cant afford one themselves and share.
My Sisiter and Bin Law live in Mid Wales. The Doctors surgery has moved to a bigger village 7 or 8 miles away. There's a very limited bus service and that, I guess, is replicated in many areas.
What is a frustrating incovenience to some, is the removal of a lifeline to others. We're lucky in Merseyside, we have a brilliant transport system within the triangle of Chester to Ormskirk and Southport and good links to the Greater Manchester area.
Unfortunately, with the deregulation of Public Transport it should now be more accurately called Private Transport, as it's usually run by private companies and the Publuc service aspect is swapped for profit. Like a lot of other aspects of life that were looked on as a service, they have gone or are going where people have little or no recourse to those services.
As far as those of us who want to walk through some of these beautiful parts of Britain, yes I agree, transport facilities can be a real pain and if we have cars, we can use them. But for many people, it's a massive problem in their lives.