A new trial bus service linking two Staffordshire towns and the villages between them starts this autumn.
Beginning on Tuesday 1 September, the year-long county council-funded 151 service will run from Stone to Rugeley. It will call at Aston Lodge (replacing service A), Burston, Sandon, Weston, Hixon, Great Haywood, Little Haywood and Colwich.
There will be an hourly service from Monday to Saturday, with nine journeys in each direction between just before 9am and 5.30pm.
The county council’s transport team will monitor the service and passenger numbers during the year’s trial period.
The timetable will be available from 3 August on the county council’s bus travel webpage.
Andrew Mynors, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Connectivity said:
It’s great news for communities along the A51 corridor that they can benefit from better transport connections through our new bus service.
We’ve worked closely with residents and in the town and parish councils to get this trial service off the ground. We hope people make use of the service over the year from September, as forward plans will depend on passenger numbers.
This route hasn’t had a regular service for several years and it will be a welcome addition for people of all ages.
It’s a priority to us to ensure our residents have a choice of transport options to access work, education, health and leisure services. We continually review our bus network so that it’s efficient and targeted where services are needed most.”
Brendan McKeown, Stafford Borough Councillor for Haywoods & Hixon said:
There are many growing communities and industrial developments along the Trent Valley and so we’re pleased the county council has worked with us to launch this 12-month trial service, which is a generous period.
After our hard work and planning to get to this point, we hope as many people use the service as possible.
I would also like to thank the county council and County Councillor Andrew Mynors, who represents the Trent Valley Division, for his support.”
