In last week’s issue CBW reported on Spirit Buses of Rothbury ending operation of its bus services. Spirit Buses has since clarified its position.
In a statement, the operator said: “Spirit Buses will be operating all its services as normal up to and including Saturday November 5 which will be the last day of operation.
“Routes 15 and 16 were devised in 2014 as new routes to serve rural communities in and around Rothbury and Upper Coquetdale and have been operated on a private commercial basis with extremely good support from the local community for the past two years. These routes are not under contract from Northumberland County Council although a small support payment was received from them during the past 12 months.
“Having established and operated these routes over the past two years, passenger figures of 50,000+ seem to indicate that these services have fulfilled a requirement not previously identified. This would appear to be borne out as Northumberland County Council are seeking to commission a replacement service and are undertaking to put these routes out to tender.
“It was a business decision by Spirit Buses Limited to cease operating these services due to the specific financial constraints of running just these services in isolation. The business itself has not stopped trading nor has it gone into administration.”
INFO
For further information please refer to the operator’s website, www.spiritbuses.co.uk, and Facebook pages.
