877/878 bus service
Update on the 877/878 bus service that covers the villages of Brewood, Coven, Bishops Wood, Wheaton Aston, Lapley, Stretton, Gailey, Penkridge, Acton Trussell, Derrington, Church Eaton, Bradley and Haughton (White Cross)
A copy of the new timetable that starts on 31st August is attached. Additional resource has been invested into the service with another bus being used to enhance the service. In summary:
• A brand new Saturday service is introduced – villages have not had a Saturday service for some years now. We hope this will provide for residents requests for a service on a Saturday.
• Additional services operate across the day, providing more buses to both Stafford, Penkridge and Wolverhampton.
• The 878 is re-routed to serve Gailey, which responds to requests to access Dobbies at Gailey.
• Stafford town centre terminus is altered so that services finish at the bus stop outside of Stafford Police Station and start from the bus stops on Eastgate Street outside Shrewsbury Arms. The change of route into Stafford town centre gives better access to the Riverside shopping area.
One change to note is that service 877 will no longer operate via Marston, and 878 will not operate via Whiston due to there being virtually no usage of the service at these locations.
Select Bus offer contactless card payments on the bus, mobile ticketing through the “My Trip” app (available from Play Store or Apple Store), and of course concessionary passes are accepted as usual. Daily, weekly and monthly tickets are offered which are useful for regular travel and also valid for onward travel using “Chaserider” services too. Families can use the 1 day group ticket which provides travel on all Select / Chaserider services for £13 all day.
All bus operators continue to have strict cleaning regimes in place to maintain hygiene and follow government covid guidance for transport operators. This includes use of products such as “X Mist” which remains active on all surfaces in the vehicle for several days. We hope that this gives residents the confidence that it is safe to travel by bus.
The sustainability of local bus services is really helped if residents use the bus instead of their car, so that the bus isn’t only used by those who have no other option. Select Bus will be arranging for the new timetable to be included in the Select Bus / Chaserider area timetable guides which are printed as booklets.