Derbyshire Community Transport (DCT) ran a number of services for us, including 2 scheduled bus services, the 147 from Belper to Street Lane, Marehay through Ripley and the 148 from Alfreton to Codnor through Pentrich. Unfortunately DCT signalled their intention to close down by the end of October, leaving these services without an operator.
Following lots of work, the new contracts to continue these services have been awarded to Notts and Derby Buses, who will start running the routes from 1 November 2024 - meaning there will be no gap in service.
The services will run almost the same number of journeys as now, but to make the service more economically viable and efficient they will run on a ‘one driver, one bus basis. This means that the services will have a break in the middle of the day for the driver to stop for lunch so there will be some timing changes to the services.
Our Cabinet Member for Highways Assets and Transport, Councillor Charlotte Cupit, said:
“We were very sorry to hear the news that DCT could not carry on trading so we’ve been working hard to look for new operators for the services they ran on our behalf.
“I’m pleased to be able to say that Notts and Derby buses will take on these two important bus routes from 1 November. This means that, despite additional costs, we have secured replacements to be able to continue these services that I know are very important to these local communities. Thank you to our public transport team for their quick work on this which will also mean there’s no gap in these new services taking over from DCT.”
Timetable details for both services will shortly be available at Derbys Bus Info
We are working on finding new contractors for the other services provided by DCT, the shopping bus service and Travel Derbyshire on Demand and hope to have more news shortly.