COUNCILS need to be kept aware of the need for public transport in the countryside, a bus chief says.

Ian Wright, managing director of Nenthead bus operators Wright Bros, was addressing an Alston and East Fellside neighbourhood forum meeting at Alston Town Hall, at which people were urged to use a temporarily-reprieved bus service.

“Try to make sure the council realises that in the rural areas there is always going to be the need for public transport,” he said.

“There may come a point in our lives when we don’t want to or are not able to drive.”

Chairing the meeting, county councillor Bert Richardson said the message over the reinstated 888 service between Nenthead and Newcastle was: “Use it or lose it.”

By Maurice Chesworth
Cumberland News
Friday, 24 October 2008

BUS passengers in one of Cumbria’s remotest areas have been given a lifeline – with the county council agreeing to fund a service for six months at a cost of more than £200 a day.

They will now have the chance to prove that the 888 Nenthead to Newcastle service has a long-term future. ...

The bus, to be operated by Wright Brothers, will run from Monday to Friday, leaving Nenthead at 7am and arriving in Newcastle for 8.45am.

The return journey leaves Newcastle at 5.15pm, getting into Nenthead at 6.50pm.

Cumberland News
Thursday, 23 October 2008

PEOPLE travelling from Alston Moor to Tynedale and Newcastle have been thrown a lifeline after Cumbria County Council agreed to fund a threatened bus route for the next six months.

But they have also been told to use it – or lose it for good.

The council has agreed to give bus passengers the chance to prove the Monday to Friday 888 bus service from Nenthead to Newcastle, via Hexham, has a long-term future by agreeing to a six-month trial.

Residents along the route protested when the council decided to withdraw its subsidy for the service from June this year.

The county council has, however, listened to the needs and concerns of people in and around the Alston area, who highlighted the necessity of the service for shopping and travelling to work

Friday, 11 July 2008

A SLEEPER coach owned by an Eden bus firm which is transporting rock band Whitesnake’s road crew on a European tour is thought to have become the first to enter Albania.

Wright Bros. (Coaches) Limited director Gary Wright, who owns the Nenthead-based company along with his brother Ian, is currently on tour with the band and is travelling through Serbia.

Gary, aged 47, who lives in Alston with his wife Brenda and has two children, set off on the tour on 2nd June and has so far taken in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Holland, the UK, Belgium, Albania, Bulgaria and Istanbul.

He has just left Romania and is taking the group to Croatia ahead of its dates in the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Sir, We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many passengers who have used our Friday service between Alston and Garrigill since the 1970s.

This service will run for the last time on Friday, 6th June, 2008. Sadly the declining number of passengers has taken its toll on this particular service and the withdrawal of subsidy from Cumbria County Council means that it is no longer financially viable.

Cumberland & Westmorland Herald
Friday, 30 May 2008

A CALL has gone out from Alston Moor for a “stay of execution” on bus service cuts. This would give county council transport chiefs time for a rethink, says one of the area’s local councillors.

The battle to save the Monday-Friday 888 bus service operated by Wright Brothers from Nenthead to Newcastle via Hexham is not over, says parish councillor Dick Phillips in the latest issue of the Alston Moor Newsletter.

Mr. Phillips, who leads the newsletter production team, is also chairman of the Nenthead ward meeting, and says the points he is making are those made by residents at ward meetings.

Cumberland & Westmorland Herald
Friday, 18 January 2008

A FAMILY bus firm that began with a pony and trap during World War I and which is situated in England’s highest village now transports international music stars all over Europe.

However, despite its celebrity clients, Wright Bros. (Coaches) Limited maintains its dedication to the local services it provides from its base at Nenthead, near Alston, which sits 1,500ft above sea level.

Wright Bros. was started in a loose form in the early 1900s with a pony and trap run by Mary Wright during the First World War. Mary’s husband, Ned, was unusual in the Nenthead area in ...

Cumberland News
Friday, 29 June 2007
By BRIAN DANIEL

BUS links between Haltwhistle and Alston will be severed if a council goes ahead with proposed public transport cuts.

Cumbria County Council is to withdraw funding it pays private operators to run some rural services.

These include the 681 Alston to Haltwhistle service, the 888 Alston to Hexham and Newcastle route, the 889 Garrigill to Alston service on a Friday and the 889 Alston to Hexham bus on Tuesday, which calls at Nenthead.

Cumberland & Westmorland Herald
Thursday, 14 June 2007

MORE than 100 people attended a neighbourhood forum meeting in Alston on Wednesday to vent their frustration about bus cuts planned by Cumbria County Council.

The meeting, chaired by county councillor Isa Henderson and attended by Graham Whiteley, Cumbria County Council passenger transport officer, was aimed at explaining the context used for making changes to Alston Moor bus services, including the popular Tuesday 889 to Hexham.

Cuts to the services were due to take place in September, but Mr. Whiteley told the meeting that the changes, based on new transport criteria, would now not be implemented until April

Cumberland & Westmorland Herald
Friday, 01 June 2007

THREATS to axe bus services into Northumberland have brought dismay to Alston Moor.

Ian Wright, a director of Nenthead-based Wright Bros., which has been running most of the services, said the first the company heard about the proposed cuts was when the agenda for last week’s meeting of Eden local committee was published.

“It’s rather political, because they are saying that the key centre for Alston is Carlisle and that because Alston has a service to Carlisle that’s fine it doesn’t need any other service. Pensioners can have their free travel to Carlisle, but people prefer to go to Hexham .....

Cumberland & Westmorland Herald
Saturday, 08 April 2006

Sir, On the day of the Save our Hospitals rally in London, we set off from Alston at 5am full of excitement and enthusiasm to support the cause the best way we could.

Arriving in London at 12-30pm in beautiful sunshine, we listened to the speakers and talked to the camera crews. Some of us waved our banners at the traffic and got toot, toot, toot in support.

Mrs. Eleanor Walton, our “lady” leader, had her say and shook her brolly at the Houses of Parliament opposite, saying, to the loudest cheer of the day: “They don’t give a damn!”

Sir, May I, once again, use the medium of your newspaper to thank all those people who combined to make such a memorable morning in Alston on Saturday for our part of the North Cumbria hospital rally.

The atmosphere was terrific and was just what was needed to make our statement that our hospital and its services are worth fighting for, and to show our solidarity with the other eight North Cumbria hospitals also under threat.