Shropshire Council saves bus journeys to and from Oldbury Wells School
Shropshire Council has stepped in to secure bus journeys to and from Oldbury Wells school on the number 9 Bridgnorth to Wolverhampton service after its operator Arriva announced it would be making cuts to the service.
The council has agreed to use some of the Bus Service Improvement Plan funding awarded by the Department for Transport, to ensure that these journeys continue to be provided until at least 31 March 2025.
The timetable can be seen here.
The council has also agreed to use BSIP funding to save school and Saturday journeys on the 53 Ellesmere to Oswestry service.
The new funding means that Arriva will provide the Monday to Friday school journeys to and from Oldbury Wells on school days only, ensuring a service is available for customers. This school service will start from Monday 6 January 2025 in time for the new term.
Ian Nellins, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for public transport, said:
“This is very good news for those using the 9 service to get to and from Oldbury Wells School.
“We were really disappointed by Arriva’s decision to cut school journeys from the timetables of the 9 service,
“As with the 53 service, the number 9 was receiving revenue support from the Government until August 2024 and Arriva have been contacted multiple times over the past 12 months to clarify what they planned to do with the service once the funding ran out. We were disappointed to see that they had chosen to cease operating these journeys and we have spent the past few weeks working out a potential solution using our own budgets and funding. I’m pleased that we have now been able to do so.
“We will use the time to work out passenger numbers and usage along the corridor. After that time we will look to put in place a further contract which will go out for competitive tender. However, it must be stated that the service will be monitored for its use and is important that customers use the service to ensure financial commitment moving forward.”
The contract awarded is until Monday 31 March 2025, as per the allocation of funding received from the DfT.
