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D&G Bus
Optare Versa parked at the Chaserider depot, March 2024
ParentCentrebus Group
Founded1998; 26 years ago
HeadquartersLongton, Stoke-on-Trent
Service areaCheshire
Derbyshire
Greater Manchester
Shropshire
Staffordshire
Stoke-on-Trent
Routes59
HubsCrewe
Hanley
Macclesfield
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Northwich
Wilmslow
Depots4
Fleet126 (January 2025)
Chief executiveJulian Peddle
Websitewww.dgbus.co.uk

D&G Bus[1] is a bus operator based in Stoke-on-Trent. They operate local & interurban bus services in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Shropshire, Staffordshire & Stoke-on-Trent. D&G Bus is the largest bus operator in Cheshire & the second largest in North Staffordshire.

History

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Optare Solo SR at Knutsford Bus Station in 2023.

D&G Bus was formed by David Reeves and Gerald Henderson in April 1998 initially operating four buses on two routes under contract to Stoke-on-Trent City Council. It expanded with both route and school services in Cheshire and Staffordshire with 16 buses by the end of 1998.

In April 2005 D&G Bus purchased Wednesfield based Midland.[2][3] In 2006 following Gerald Henderson's sudden death Julian Peddle purchased Henderson's shareholding in the business.[4]

In August 2011 the Staffordshire business was sold to Wardle Transport with 46 routes, 30 buses and the Adderley Green depot.[5][6] In September 2011 D&G Bus and Julian Peddle purchased South Lancs Travel in Atherton, Greater Manchester.[7]

D&G Bus Optare Versa & Enviro 200 parked up at Congleton Bus Station

In August 2012 the Midland business was sold to Arriva Midlands with 61 buses.[3] In December 2014, the route operations of BakerBus were purchased with nine buses.[4][8][9]

In March 2015, D&G sold South Lancs Travel to Rotala[10] and in May 2015 purchased Wardle Transport back from Arriva Midlands with 19 buses.[11][12][13] In April 2016, D&G took over six routes from Routemaster Buses.[14]

In September 2016 D&G Bus took over the rest of the routes which Routemaster Buses had operated. In October 2016 D&G were awarded new five-year contracts for eight Cheshire East routes which were operated by GHA Coaches prior to its collapse including the 88 Altrincham to Knutsford via Wilmslow service.[15] However, most of these contracts were annulled 18 months later as part of Cheshire East council's bus review.[16]

In December 2019, Julian Peddle's Centrebus Group purchased David Reeves shareholding in D&G bus, at present it will continue to operate as a separate unit from Centrebus.[17]

In March 2020, David Reeves died after suffering a Heart Attack, aged 61.

In February 2023, Arriva North West announced that they were closing their depots in Winsford & Macclesfield. In response to this, D&G registered replacement routes to cover some of the cancelled services, with some of these services being part-supported by Cheshire East Council.

Following the closure of Arriva North West, Centrebus Group helped out by supplying a few vehicles for the fleet in Crewe which were used on a wide variety of routes like the 38 and 37. These were used to cover the routes that Arriva did cover and these are now slowly being sent back to Centrebus as D&G Bus acquires more vehicles for the fleet.

In late 2024, D&G Bus have now bought 16 MCV Evora's for their Adderley Green and Crewe depot which are now going to be used on the 38s which is a route that only recently acquired new Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC's for the fleet. These new buses are now based on the 38s and the Enviro 200 MMC's are now mainly based on the 31/37 routes run by D&G Bus.

Depots

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The company has depots in:

Past depots, now closed have included:

  • Crewe - Lockitt Street
  • Leek - Sunnyhills Road (shared with Aimee's Travel)
  • Northwich - Chapel Street, Wincham
  • Uttoxeter - The Wellington Pub (Old Headquarters)

Fleet

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As of January 2025, the fleet consisted of 126 buses.[18] Fleet livery was originally cream and blue, it has since been replaced by a red with yellow signwriting scheme. During January 2024, the company revealed a new fleet livery.[19] Red is the main colour dominating the majority of the vehicle, but now features a yellow diagonal stripe with the rear of the vehicle being dark blue. This scheme is similar to the newer livery of Centrebus vehicles.

As of July 2024, 11 buses in D&G’s fleet adorn the new livery.

The fleet mainly consists of Optare Solos, Enviro 200's & Wright Streetlites.

Since December 2023, D&G acquired a number of brand new and second-hand Enviro 200 MMCs, both the short and long wheel-base varieties.

As of August 2024, the firm acquired a number of brand new MCV eVoRa bodied Volvo B8RLEs, six of which feature ‘the nines’ livery.

Chaserider

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Main article: Chaserider

In November 2020, D&G announced they would be taking over the Cannock depot of Arriva Midlands from January 2021 with operations in Cannock and Stafford running under the Chaserider brand.[20]

Chaserider operates as a subsidiary of D&G with different ticketing arrangements and operates a separate website,[21] similar to the way Arriva owned Yorkshire Tiger operated in West Yorkshire but unlike Yorkshire Tiger, Chaserider has a similar livery to its parent.

References

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  1. ^ Companies House extract company no 6918592 D&G Bus Limited
  2. ^ Companies House extract company no 2568750 Liyell Limited
  3. ^ a b Arriva Midlands to expand operations in the West Midlands Arriva 10 August 2012
  4. ^ a b D&G Bus Bus & Coach Buyer 29 January 2015
  5. ^ Arriva Midlands acquires D&G Archived 1 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine Bus & Coach Professional 10 June 2011
  6. ^ D&G Buses bought by Arriva - owners blame subsidy cuts for sale The Sentinel 11 June 2011
  7. ^ D&G buys South Lancs Archived 5 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine Bus & Coach Professional 10 October 2011
  8. ^ D&G buys BakerBus Archived 2 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine Route One 2 January 2015
  9. ^ "25 jobs saved after BakerBus is bought by Crewe based D&G Bus". The Sentinel. 6 January 2015.
  10. ^ "Acquisition in Greater Manchester". Rotala. 2 March 2015. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.
  11. ^ "D&G Bus". www.dgbus.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  12. ^ "D&G buys Wardle Transport". Bus & Coach Buyer. 18 March 2015.
  13. ^ "D&G Bus". Buses (723): 84. June 2015.
  14. ^ D&G Bus take over some services from Routemaster Buses D&G Bus
  15. ^ "Services - 374810-2016 - TED Tenders Electronic Daily". ted.europa.eu. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  16. ^ "TSS helps Cheshire East Council implement revised Bus Services".
  17. ^ D&G Bus taken over by Centrebus Group Route One 18 December 2019
  18. ^ Fleet List D&G Bus
  19. ^ Cliff Beeton. (2 February 2024), FIRST D&G BUS IN NEW RED YELLOW & BLUE LIVERY., retrieved 8 April 2024
  20. ^ Dougall, Emily (1 December 2020). "Arriva to sell Cannock bus depot as the Chaserider brand returns". CBW. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  21. ^ "Chaserider". chaserider.co.uk.
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