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]

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.[16]

In November 2020, it was announced that D&G had bought the Cannock operations and garage of Arriva Midlands with services operated under the Chaserider brand from January 2021.

A Chaserider Wright Streetlite seen here in Walsall in January 2021

As of January 2021, the fleet consisted of 169 buses.[17] Fleet livery was originally cream and blue, it has since been replaced by a red with yellow signwriting scheme. The fleet also consists of 46 ex Arriva Midlands vehicles (still in Arriva colours) which were included in the purchase of Cannock Depot. These vehicles have had Chaserider markings applied over the Arriva markings.

D&G Bus operates mainly in North Staffordshire and South Cheshire.[18][19] The acquisition of the Arriva Midlands Cannock Depot will be the first time the company has operated in the West Midlands since the sale of Midland to Arriva.

Media related to D&G Bus at Wikimedia Commons

• Company website
• Flickr gallery