Who does this affect 

This affects people who live in or travel to St Helens, Haydock, Ashton, Platt bridge, Hindley, Hindley Green, Atherton, Deane and Bolton 

Information

Locals may remember that Blue Bus was acquired by Arriva in 2005. Since then Arriva has withdrawn or cut back many of the former Blue Bus routes, including the 620 route between St Helens and Bolton.

Background to the service 
Back in 2006, Arriva made the step of increasing the service to run every 30 minutes, something that Blue Bus wanted to do for several years but was not in a position to be able to do so.

However, this was the start of a downward trend that would see the eventual demise of the route. After moving to a different depot, the service lost its low floored vehicles, being replaced by old step-entry vehicles that were no good for the service. It became very unreliable, with journeys often not operating if services were running late, instead of utilising a spare driver or bus to cover the journey. Things got so bad that even the Traffic Commissioner became involved.

In March 2008 the route was cut back to run between St Helens and Atherton only, before being withdrawn in its entirety five months later. Initially no replacement service was offered by GMPTE, however after complaints by councillors and local residents, they agreed to provide a replacement hourly service, but between Ashton and Hindley Green only. Arriva was awarded the contract as they offered to link the service into an existing service to reinstate the link to St Helens.

Why should it be brought back? 
The 620 was the only direct link between St Helens and Bolton. It also provided a number of unique links between destinations on the route, such as Ashton to Bolton and Atherton to St Helens.

Without the direct link, it can now take up to twice as long to make some journeys as they involve a change of bus in Wigan or Leigh.

Do people even want to go between St Helens and Bolton? 
Yes. I have talked to a lot of people in my local area who travel from St Helens to Bolton, but have to travel via Wigan to do so. I have also spoken to a large number of people in both St Helens and Bolton who have said they would use the service if the link was reintroduced, many of whom frequently used the old service.

Other Links that have helpped out 

So far the petition has made it into not one to two local papers

Bolton evening news: http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/9905693.Bus_service____should_be_reinstated_/

the st helens star: http://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/9901986.Online_campaign_to_get_St_Helens_to_Bolton_bus_back_on_the_road/

Thank you for reading, and I hope you support the campaign!