Arriva clarifies future of Tees Valley services after funding cuts

Arriva North East said it was in talks to retain a number of further services

A bus company has clarified the future of its services after cuts to its funding were announced.

Arriva North East said it had reached an agreement on several routes, originally due to be affected from 9 July.

It follows claims from Tory mayor Ben Houchen that he, and five councils, had "stepped in" to retain key services.

An Arriva spokesperson said it "fully appreciates" how "important our bus services are to our passengers".

The company had been due to make cuts or changes to 25 services across Darlington, Teesside and County Durham next week.

However, it said that after talks with the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) the following services had been retained, and would run to a "broadly similar timetable" until 2 September.

• Service 12 between Hurworth and Middleton St George

• Service 3 between Darlington and Mowden, which will eventually be replaced by a new service 17

• Service 3A between Darlington and Harrowgate Farm, which will eventually be replaced a new service 18

It said service 28A between Middlesbrough and Stokesley would continue to run through Nunthorpe Village and Nunthorpe Hall.

The firm said it was working with the TVCA to "likely" reinstate or improve the following services:

• Service 29, which would run between Monday and Saturday, serving Marton Manor, Marton Shops, Marton and Cypress Road

• Service 3 between Lingdale and Redcar Centre, which will run on a Sunday

• Service 3 between Darlington and Skerne Park and service 4 between Darlington and Minors Crescent, will both run on an evening and Sunday

It has not reached an agreement on other services but it "continues to be open" to discussions with the TVCA, the firm said.

A spokesperson said it was "doing all we can to work" with the local authorities so it can "continue to connect communities and protect our services".

They said: "We fully appreciate how important our bus services are to our passengers - they tell us this every day - and we want to able to run services for them.

"We also appreciate there is an agreement process that must be done in order for those services to be reinstated and we're working to try and achieve this.

"Until then, except for the services detailed above, which are retained from July 9, all other network changes put forward to start on July 9, will remain in place."

Mr Houchen, who is Tees Valley mayor, previously said the decision to cut services had been "incredibly disappointing", but that it had worked "extremely hard" to "find a way forward".

Arriva has said customers can check its timetables and journey planner, which will be updated.