Visitors to Brontland will be able to access the countryside this Easter without fear of spreading foot and mouth disease -- by taking the bus.

An 812 service -- the Bront Scenic Tour -- will operate on Easter Day and Easter Monday, taking in the areas around Penistone Hill and the Bront Moors, beyond Haworth.

It is being run under contract to the recently re-branded Bront Country Partnership (BCP), formerly the Keighley and Haworth Tourism Management Group.

The service will run every 45 minutes, from 11.40am-4.55pm. It will operate from Haworth Railway Station -- where it will connect with all Keighley and Worth Valley Railway trains arriving from Keighley -- to Oxenhope Station, via the Bront Parsonage Museum, Penistone Hill and Oxenhope village.

BCP treasurer Graham Mitchell hopes the service may be extended to operate on Sundays throughout the summer. The Haworth Hoppa was threatened with closure owing to lack of funding.

Mr Mitchell said: "A limited amount of new funding has made it possible for service 812 to operate at Easter and the two Spring Bank Holidays. Hopefully, with additional funding, which is still being sought, we can then continue the service every Sunday throughout the summer.

"Now that the Government is actively encouraging the public to visit the countryside in a responsible manner, it is vitally important that we all support the Haworth local economy in every way possible. BCP feels that there is no safer and more sustainable way of doing that than by using the bus."

BCP co-ordinator Carolyn Spencer also strongly supports the new service. She said: "It will allow people to leave their cars at home and to travel by steam train to either Haworth or Oxenhope railway stations, where they can join the bus for a 30-minute tour of Penistone Hill, with superb views over the high Bront Moors.

"Of course it is not the same as walking on the moors, but in the present conditions it is safe and it is environmentally sound."

Matthew Stroh, publicity chairman for the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, said: "Many of our passengers are keen to see something of the surrounding moorland and we feel that this new bus service will be of great benefit to them, allowing a totally safe scenic tour of the splendid upland landscape between Haworth and Oxenhope.

"The K&WVR is happy to support this new service, and we have negotiated a deal whereby K&WVR Day Rover and Family Rover tickets will be valid for travel on bus service 812, which is an added bonus."