Council step in and save six Derbyshire bus routes with injection of funding

The 53 bus, which runs between Sheffield, Eckington, Clowne, Bolsover and Mansfield, is run by Stagecoach, with no funding from Derbyshire County Council.

The company, however, had planned to scrap the service entirely due to low passenger numbers. On Tuesday, September 13, Derbyshire County Council confirmed that they would keep the service running – providing the funding to do so from January 2023. The route will then be re-assessed to see if passenger numbers increase.

Councillor Kewal Singh Athwal, Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet member for highways assets and transport, said: “This service provide vital transport links for communities in Bolsover and North East Derbyshire, linking them with Sheffield and Mansfield, 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.”

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Derbyshire County Council is also funding the following services across the county:

9: East Midlands Airport – Melbourne – Swadlincote - Burton

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.