Update on Ludlow bus – routes 701 and 722
Following the deregistration of the R&B Travel 701 and 722 bus services in Ludlow by the Office of the Traffic Commissioner* (West Midlands), Shropshire Council can now announce a further update to the interim service they have stepped in to provide.
The plans have progressed quickly with a second bus secured for the routes. The extra bus has enabled cover for both the 701 and 722 services to run at half hourly intervals and the latest timetables can be found below. On Saturday 25 January, R&B Travel ran their final journeys as operators of the routes.
Claire Wild, Shropshire Council Cabinet member for transport, said:
“For the users, having the full service was clearly important and I have heard many concerned residents voicing concerns about potentially not having these routes. It is because of this I’m very pleased to announce that the full plans have now been confirmed.
“We’ve had to work quickly to put these plans in place but I’m very happy to say we’ve been able to do it. Last week we announced the first step – the emergency plans ensuring there would be a service – and I hope now that these full arrangements will further ease the worried minds of the residents.”
As a result of the now deregistered R&B Travel service being run purely commercially, Shropshire Council were legally unable to formally arrange plans for any service along these routes until deregistration dates were officially confirmed from the Office of the Traffic Commissioner. This official confirmation was only received by the Council on Wednesday 22 January.
Cllr Wild, said:
“The former 701 and 722 services operated by R&B Travel were wholly commercial operations and, as such, did not fall under the jurisdiction of Shropshire Council
“On Thursday [23 January] we issued a temporary timetable due to start today [Monday 27 January] but this has now changed as the fully planned interim service is finalised beyond emergency cover. The planned service is to be provided by experienced Minsterley Motors, with low step buses, under a direct contract from Shropshire Council and will operate with two buses and is expected to provide a 30 minute service.”
Today is the first day that the interim service will be running and you can find and download the finalised timetables via the link below.
Further Information
* The deregistration date of Sunday 26 January was publically confirmed on Friday 24 January when the OTC published their Fortnightly Notice and Proceedings publication (2192) (which can be viewed online self.service@otc.gsi.gov.uk). In ‘Section 3.6 – Cancellations of Existing Services Granted Under Short Notice’ on page 13 of the document it was stated that the OTC had approved for the service to decommissioned at short notice
