Bus company steps in to save route
A coach company has stepped in to save a threatened bus route between Oswestry and Ellesmere.
Lakeside Coaches has applied to the Traffic Commissioner to take over the service that is being vacated by the Tanat Valley Coach company.
The 449 is a direct bus service between the two towns, via Whittington. There is also the 53 service which takes in other villages.
Gareth Davies, a director of Lakeside Coaches, said that if the application to the Traffic Commissioner was successful then the service would take over on September 3, as the old service ended.
"It will not be a subsidised service but a fully commercial one," he said.
"That means that we will be reliant of passengers using the service. It will be sink or swim."
He said the company had seen great success in the takeover of the 501 service between Ellesmere and Shrewsbury two years ago.
"We revitalised that service with new buses and regular drivers," he said.
"We also now run the Ellesmere town service as well as the town services in Wem and Whitchurch."
