TWO new bus services will be launching in Hereford next week, with the hope of more people ditching cars.

Sargeants Brothers, based in Kington, will be running the two new circular routes in the city from Tuesday, June 1.

Service A will operate a circular route from the City Bus Station, at the back of Tesco, via Tupsley.

Service B will operate a circular route from the City Bus Station via Bobblestock.

While there will be no buses on Sundays or Bank Holidays, except Good Friday, services will be every half hour Monday to Saturday.

The timetable for Service A shows the first bus of the day will be at 8.40am, then running every half hour until the last bus at 5.10pm.

For Service B, the first bus will be at 8am and the last at 5.30pm.

Hereford Times: A Sargeants Brothers bus at Hereford Country Bus Station. Picture: Rob Davies A Sargeants Brothers bus at Hereford Country Bus Station. Picture: Rob Davies

The firm, which runs buses between Hereford, Kington and Llandrindod Wells, as well as Hereford, Presteigne and Knighton, has not operated a city centre route for 16 years.

Sargeants Brothers managing director Matt Evans said: "We are really pleased to be back operating in the City of Hereford after a 16 year absence.

"Our product offering is designed to raise the bar in terms of customer experience.

"Our goal to is to make the bus attractive to non-users and existing customers alike, with the aim of reducing the number of passenger car journeys in Hereford."

The firm has not yet revealed details of fares.

In November 2020, figures revealed fewer local bus journeys were being made in Herefordshire than five years ago.

Some 1.8 million bus passenger journeys were made in 2019-20 – down from 2.8 million in 2014-15, the Department for Transport's annual bus statistics show.

This means the average resident took 0.8 local bus journeys a month in the county last year, compared to 1.3 in 2014-15 .

Over the same period, the number of miles clocked by local buses in the area fell, from 2.6 million in 2014-15 to 2.2 million in 2018-19.

The DfT says the number of bus journeys in 2019-20 was impacted by Covid-19 with restrictions imposed on March 23 and people discouraged from taking public transport.

But a spokeswoman added the five-year downward trend did show there was "more that can be done to deliver reliable and regular bus services for both new and existing passengers".