D&G Bus has introduced replacement commercial services for three routes withdrawn by First Potteries in late November.
It has hired three former Tower Transit Alexander Dennis Enviro200s from Centrebus to operate new half-hourly route 10 (Hanley- Meir), which runs on Mondays to Saturdays. On Sundays, it requires four buses for route 8 (Hanley-Ball Green) and routes 21A/23A (Hanley-Trentham), which First continues to run on other days.
In total, First Potteries has withdrawn more than 160 journeys across its network, mainly affecting weekend and evening services, but also impacting on some in the early morning, as well as the routes that D&G is picking up.
Managing director Nigel Eggleton told the Stoke Sentinel: ‘People will say “this is not fair, there should be bus services running all day and at weekends” but in reality, someone has to pay for the running of them and if they are not being used it is neither practical nor cost effective to run buses with no-one travelling on them.’
