D&G Bus

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] 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]

Following Cheshire East bus review, many subsided bus routes were cut back from April 2018 and as a result D&G Bus also reviewed their commercial bus services within Cheshire East. For example, up until April 2018 the 88 Altrincham to Knutsford via Wilmslow contracted service had operated half-hourly, while a 300 Knutsford circular service commercial service also operated half-hourly. Following the 88 contract being reduced to hourly (and remaining with D&G Bus), D&G Bus withdrew the 300 service[18] and registered an hourly 88A Knutsford to Colshaw Farm via Longridge service which retained a roughly half-hourly frequency between Knutsford and Wilmslow but halved the number of services along certain roads in Knutsford. They also registered a 130 Macclesfield to Manchester Airport service in response to the 200 service being withdrawn and Arriva reducing the frequency of the 130 Macclesfield to East Didsbury service. However, within 3 months of changing their commercial service in Cheshire East they cancelled most of their commercial services in the borough.[19][20] D&G had also previously registered a 378 Wilmslow to Handforth Dean service in response to Stagecoach withdrawing the service but again promptly withdrew the new service.[21]

As of January 2023, the fleet consisted of 92 buses.[22] Fleet livery was originally cream and blue, it has since been replaced by a red with yellow signwriting scheme. The fleet mainly consists of Optare Solos, Enviro 200's & Wright Streetlites.

Chaserider

Chaserider

Wright Streetlite in Walsall
Founded	January 2021
Headquarters	Delta Way, Cannock
Service area	Cannock Stafford Wolverhampton
Depots	Cannock
Operator	D&G Bus
Chief executive	Julian Peddle
Website	www.chaserider.co.uk

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.[23]

Chaserider operates as a subsidiary of D&G with different ticketing arrangements and operates a separate website,[24] similar to the way Arriva owned Yorkshire Tiger operated in West Yorkshire but unlike Yorkshire Tiger, Chaserider has a similar livery to its parent.

Media related to D&G Bus at Wikimedia Commons

• Company website
• Flickr gallery