Bus back to Wye and Little Burton

Bus services will be restored to Wye and Little Burton in Kennington from mid-November.

Stagecoach has confirmed a new daytime route will operate on a trial basis between Ashford town centre and Wye, which will also serve Little Burton and the Sainsbury’s Superstore at Bybrook.

The bus company’s Managing Director, Joel Mitchell, said “It’s brilliant news that we’re now able to bring buses back to these communities, but we really need people to use them to make the service sustainable in the long-term.”

Stagecoach ended its bus services to Wye and Little Burton in August in a bid to contain what it described as ongoing and significant financial losses. Nationally, bus use has not recovered above around 80% of the pre-Covid level, and Stagecoach, like other bus operators, say they are struggling with significant operating cost increases too.

Mr Mitchell added “Our instinct is, and will always be, to provide every possible opportunity for people to use buses to get around. That means listening to what local people have to say and working with others to find solutions. We always hoped to be able to restore a service to these communities, and fortunately we’ve been able to secure short-term funding for an extra peak-time service elsewhere in Ashford – which gives us some spare resource in the daytime to be able to run this route.

“Hopefully people will be able to see that we will do all we can, working in partnership with local government and communities, to get buses on the road. I would encourage everyone to make use of the service; the more people take the bus, the quicker we can rebuild bus networks and the less we need to rely on short-term funding solutions.”

New route 14 will operate an off-peak Monday to Friday service between Ashford town centre, Bybrook Sainsbury’s, Little Burton and Wye from Monday 13 November.