I don't think that a minibus shuttle or three would be that expensive.

It's fuel, insurance, and capital costs.

A week's hire on a minibus will be about £500. You'll need 5 named and agreed drivers acceptable to insurers and to the hire company - volunteers are free. A bus will do about 15 to the gallon and the round trip is not more than 5 miles, so that's fuel costs of under £2 per trip. Let's be real pessimists and assume the allocated insurance cost is going to be £200 for the week for the van.

15 seater van - running at half capacity (8 people) £1 each way for the trip, round trip revenue £16 deduct fuel cost amortise £14.

Say it runs every half hour 9 am to 2 am. Is that 36 trips? Amortise £504 per day - 7 days that's £3,500 - less hire of £500 less insurance of £200 - err - profit of between £2,500 and £3,000 per minibus for the week.

If it runs every half hour regular as clockwork people will use it. The reason they don't use existing bus services is that they have no idea whether they will turn up at all or if so when. And AFAIK you have to walk most of the way up the hill to find the bus-stop, which is by the town hall.