Yeomans to withdraw several commercial bus services

Yeomans has announced it intends to withdraw a large proportion of its commercial services in Hereford from the start of next year.

Herefordshire Council today said it has held discussions with Yeomans to request that they delay their withdrawal of services until April 2022.

In a statement, Herefordshire Council said: "This would provide time for the council and local operators to plan and put in place alternatives to ensure continuity of service for people currently reliant on Yeomans bus services. Yeomans have declined this request."

"The council is holding discussions with other operators regarding replacing the withdrawn services, or putting in place alternatives on a commercial basis so that some continuity of service might be maintained. Due to the very limited timescales involved it is unclear if any operators will have sufficient time to put alternative services in place."

In the interim, the council will be seeking to tender some replacement services which will be in place from January 2022.

The following routes are affected:

71/71A/71B – Credenhill - Hereford         

71S – Credenhill – Whitecross School (School days)              

72 – Bobblestock – Hereford

74 – Hereford – Newton Farm (Sunday service withdrawn)               

74A – Hereford – Hunderton - Newton Farm

74S – Newton Farm - Hereford - Bishop's School (School days)  

77A – Hereford - College Green - Holmer - Bobblestock circular

78A/78S – Skylon Park – Putson – Redhill (journeys serving Redhill withdrawn)

79A – Putson – Redhill – Hereford (peak hours)          

88/88A – Hinton – Putson – The Pastures – Redhill (Saturday service withdrawn and all Monday-Friday journeys serving Redhill) 

The withdrawals include school services from Credenhill to Whitecross school, and the City to Bishops school.

Yeomans had already withdrawn the 75, 77, 81, and 81A services, and services to St Mary’s High school in September this year.

Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Transport, John Harrington said: “The timing of the withdrawal of these commercially operated services is of great concern and does not appear to take into account the issues which will be faced by the people who use and rely on these services.

“We have been meeting with all of our local operators regularly since the beginning of covid and more recently to develop proposals for an improved county network and it is disappointing that only minimum notice has been given for these significant changes”.

“There is great deal of work to do now to try and ensure that we put some temporary services in place but also to seek comprehensive proposals from operators which match our ambitions for a much improved service for the city. We have provided operators with an outline of the elements we think are important including better buses, increased service frequency and operating hours, a strong customer focus and a clear commitment to promote services and increase patronage. I think that that there are operators that share these ambitions and are keen to work in Hereford.”