TWO new bus services are launching in Hereford tomorrow (Tuesday), with the hope of more people ditching cars.

Sargeants Brothers, based in Kington, said it would launch the two new circular routes in the city on Tuesday (June 1).

It said service A was a circular route from the City Bus Station, at the back of Tesco, via Tupsley, while service B was a circular route from same station via Bobblestock.

No buses will run on Sundays or Bank Holidays, except Good Friday, services are timetabled for every half hour Monday to Saturday.

The timetable for Service A showed the first bus of the day was at 8.40am, then every half hour until 5.10pm, and service B started at 8am until 5.30pm.

The firm, which runs buses between Hereford, Kington and Llandrindod Wells, said it would be the first time it had operated a city centre route for 16 years.

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.”

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.

The Department for Transport said this was partly due to Covid-19, and the stay at home message.