Biggest Bus Timetable Improvements for 10 years coming in the New Year

Bus travel across the county will see big improvements when 2025 is welcomed, with a number of bus service enhancements set to go live early in January.

The Council, alongside providers First Bus and Diamond Bus, have announced changes to services that will see one of the biggest improvements for people travelling by bus in the past 10 years.

Improvements to the services include increased service frequency, new peak time buses, new Sunday services and later evening buses on various routes across the county.

The improvements are all part of the Bus Service Improvement Plan, which aims to further improve bus provision in the county. It focuses on improving frequency, reliability and punctuality of bus services as well as integrating services with other modes of travel, improving services in rural areas and enhancing infrastructure such as bus shelters and real time information displays.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, Worcestershire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, said: “The improvements to timetables provide a huge boost to bus users and a much broader service across the county. These extended services should make bus travel a good option to travel around the county and beyond, even for those who don’t currently take the bus.

“We want the traditional bus service to link in with the successful Worcestershire on Demand service and to link into other modes of transport, such as rail, to provide a really comprehensive service. We want to give people a real choice about how they travel around the county and wider.

“And with the additional funding announced recently support our Bus Service Improvement Plan, these improvements to services in the New Year will now be part of a plan for local services to be much bigger and better over the coming months and years.”

Diamond Bus Group, commented, “We are pleased to be working in partnership with Worcestershire County Council to bring a number of service enhancements to passengers in Redditch and Kidderminster. These changes, which will see more early morning journeys on the 3 and 8 for commuters travelling into Kidderminster and better links to Alexandra Hospital in Redditch on the 12 are great news for people in the area.

The shared goal between the County Council and Diamond is to work together to create a robust, stable and desirable bus network for the local community. UK Government Bus Service Improvement Plan funding has enabled these improvements to be made and brings us another step closer to realising this goal.”

Rob Pymm, Commercial Director for First Worcester, said: “This is a really exciting time for bus services in the Worcester area. By working closely with Worcestershire County Council we’ve been able to further expand the bus network in the county, and connect even more communities to public transport thanks to government funding to support the council’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).

“In addition to these BSIP service changes, I’m really pleased that we are also investing in further improvements to lots of our existing routes by adding journeys in the mornings, evenings and at weekends. All-in-all this is great news for Worcestershire, and demonstrates our commitment to further growing the services we offer to encourage even more people to travel sustainably and try the bus.”

The Bus Service Improvement Plan focuses on road and rail passenger transport services within Worcestershire, including Home to School, bus, taxi, community transport and other community-based bespoke transport initiatives.

To find out which services are set to be enhanced, visit the Bus Timetables and Journey Planning pages.