Herefordshire’s bus operators are being supported to expand services across the county thanks to a bus-specific grant from the government.

Herefordshire Council’s cabinet member for transport Coun Philip Price said that while the council does not run any bus services of its own, it had worked with the county’s private operators to decide how best to spend Bus Service Improvement Plan Plus (BSIP+) funding, worth £950,000 this year and next.

Coun Price said this will support existing services but also enable the following changes:

  • The 78X service from the city centre to Rotherwas, run by Yeomans, will be extended to the Shell Store employment space;
  • The 476 Hereford-Ledbury service operated by DRM is becoming hourly between 9am and 3pm six days a week, and will include two new stops;
  • Hourly trips are being reinstated, and later services added, to Yeomans’ 492 service between Hereford railway station and Leominster;
  • Two-hourly and Sunday services are being reinstated for the Stagecoach 36 Hereford-Monmouth service;
  • The 420 DRM Bromyard-Worcester service is being reinstated, while the timetable of DRM’s 469 Bromyard-Hereford service will be “simplified”;
  • Later services are being added to Sargeants’ 461 Hereford-Kington service.

“We hope to make more service improvements as more funding becomes available,” Coun Price added.

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He was answering a public question on opportunities for young people to get around the country independently, and acknowledged that without later buses, “young people can’t get into and back out of the city even in the early evening”.

DRM’s transport manager Andrew Goodchild said of the 476 service, “We are waiting on new bus stops and shelters in the new estate at Ledbury, and for the council to give us a start date.”

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Yeomans operations manager Ian Davies cautioned that “timetables and logistics have yet to be finalised” on its service.

Stagecoach confirmed there would be improvements to the Monmouth service.

Herefordshire had previously made an ambitious £18-million bid for post-Covid bus service improvements across the county, but had this rejected in April 2022.