Derbyshire County Council are providing funding to secure some key bus services across the county.
The services are:
- 9 – East Midlands Airport – Melbourne – Swadlincote – Burton
- 53 – Sheffield – Eckington – Clowne – Bolsover – Mansfield
- 401 – Burton – Hatton – Foston – Sudbury – Doveridge – Uttoxeter
- 237 – Glossop to Ashton via Hadfield
- 341 – Glossop to Hyde via Gamesley
- 358 – Hayfield to Stockport via New Mills.
The 9, 53 and 401 services have been provided by commercial operators with no funding from the council, but due to low passenger numbers were going to be stopped entirely. The 9 and 401 services will be funded from September and the 53 from January 2023 and then re-assessed to see if passenger numbers increase.
The 237, 341 and 358 services were recently tendered by Transport for Greater Manchester, with the council deciding to provide additional money to keep them going.
Our Cabinet Member for Highways Assets and Transport, Councillor Kewal Singh Athwal, said:
“All of these services provide vital transport links for rural communities and we could not stand by and see them disappear.
“Nationally bus passenger numbers have not yet returned to pre Covid levels, so in supporting these services we hope we will encourage more people to use them and I would urge all residents to start using the buses available on a more regular basis.
“By providing the money to keep these services going we are doing all we can to allow people to get to their place of work, education, to the shops or travel for leisure.”
