Ambitious plans for improved bus links and fare reductions on some services will form part of a potential £70m county-wide shake up of public transport - including an Oswestry route being restored to full levels.

Shropshire Council says its new “Bus Service Improvement Plan” will transform bus travel in the county with a range of schemes kicking off from this August, following an initial award of £1.8m from the Government’s Network North fund.

The grant will fund a number of smaller network improvements to existing services, with the authority hoping to attract funding for major improvements from 2025 onwards.

Currently around 95 per cent of bus routes are subsidised by Shropshire Council, with the future developments intended to make the county’s bus services more self-sustaining.

Starting in August, the scheme will see fares halved on the county’s two council-operated park and ride schemes in Ludlow and Shrewsbury, down from £2 to £1 return, with future plans to include an upgrade of the Ludlow service to run as a dedicated express link into the town centre every 30 minutes.

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The authority’s successful connect on demand service will also be extended to the Oteley Road area of Shrewsbury in peak times, and also extended to the new Weir Hill development across London Road.

In Market Drayton, the number 64 route will be restored to an hourly service between Hanley and Shrewsbury while Oswestry will see the 401 town service, which was reduced following the pandemic, restored to previous levels.

The number 436 which runs between Bridgnorth and Shrewsbury will also be upgraded from an hourly to half-hourly service under the plans.

Speaking at the launch of the scheme Ian Nellins, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for public transport, said the initial award of just under £2m would go towards improving existing rural services while the council’s roadmap for future services would hopefully unlock further funding.

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“This is only a small part of it compared to our aspirations for the future,” he said.

“We’ve asked for £73m pounds which sounds like a lot of money, but in order to provide a service for a large rural local authority like Shropshire, to give us more demand response in the market towns, to give us more access to the places people need to go, that’s the amount of money that we need to do it.

“Hopefully if more people start using public transport and we can get that support then success will breed success and the government will look at us more favourably.

“We’ve had [the department for transport] here in the past, we’ve shown them what the problems are here and they’re starting to understand.

“Ultimately we would like these services to be self-funding, and that’s the aspiration.”