Saturday 29th March 2025
It’s been on the cards for months, if not a couple of years; it’s the sad demise of Hulleys of Baslow (“Proudly serving the Peak District since 1921”) which finally came to pass on Wednesday.
Emergency short term contracts were awarded by Derbyshire County Council commencing on Thursday, just in the nick of time, so all Hulleys’ tendered work was covered; and surprise surprise standing in Bakewell Square enjoying that day’s gorgeous sunny warm weather, unless I knew the background, I wouldn’t have noticed anything had changed.
Buses in Hulleys’ livery, albeit one or two with the former fleet name removed, were coming and going very much as they’ve always done. Former Hulleys’ drivers were at the wheel. Passengers were travelling as usual. Legal lettering still maintained Hulleys was the owner.
I understand, unbeknown to Hulleys’ owner (Alf Crofts, since March 2020), the company’s staff, sensing the end was nigh and there was no cash to pay their wages this week, moved most of the fleet out of Hulleys’ Baslow premises in a coordinated move on Tuesday, taking the vehicles over to Andrew’s of Tideswell, a long established local coach operator now operating former Hulleys’ tendered routes 172/173/178 and 257 centered on Bakewell employing former Hulleys’ drivers.
Ashbourne Community Transport has picked up routes 110/111 (Ashbourne-Wirksworth-Matlcok) and despite the short notice were operating with a “Carsington Connection” branded bus on Thursday which was very impressive.
Ironically Hulleys had taken this tendered route/s over when previous operator, Yourbus, suddenly ceased trading in 2019. Six years on, history has repeated itself.
Stagecoach has taken on tendered route 63 (Chesterfield to Matlock) as well as one of Hulleys’ commercial routes, hourly service 170 (Chesterfield to Baslow, Chatsworth House, and Bakewell).
High Peak got in first with approval for a short notice registration for the 170, replicating how Hulleys had run it, including a link across to Chesterfield Royal Hospital and taking in the village of Holymoorside, west of Chesterfield, but for some strange unknown reason Derbyshire County Council subsequently also approved another short notice registration from Stagecoach for the same service except missing out the village of Holymoorside and Chesterfield Royal Hospital, so not replicating what Hulleys had provided.
High Peak decided to withdraw, understandably thinking the route isn’t big enough for two competing bus operators, so thanks to Derbyshire County Council’s rather questionable action, Holymoorside residents are currently bus less.
Hulleys commercially operated hourly route 55 (Chesterfield-Clay Cross-Alfreton) is currently in limbo with (at the time of writing) no takers and no intervention from the County Council. Commercial routes 271/272 (Castleton-Sheffield) also had no takers on Thursday, but that evening High Peak announced it was stepping in from yesterday.
It’s a long standing “jointly operated” route with First Bus but that company had held back from registering the former Hulleys’ journeys so High Peak has now taken them on. Back in history the journeys were at one time operated by Trent.
Each company only shows its own journeys on its website…
… but fortunately Derbyshire County Council does show a combined timetable…
… but Travel South Yorkshire’ Combined Authority ‘s website confusingly shows the new timetable applying from yesterday as only being the High Peak journeys. You need your wits about you if you’re catching a bus to go walking near Castleton,
I took a ride on the newly operated Stagecoach route 170 on Thursday morning to see how it was bedding in. I planned to catch the 11:26 from Chesterfield railway station.
Whereas High Peak had intended to run the route with three buses (including, as already explained, serving the hospital and Holymoorside), Stagecoach is operating it with just two buses with two minutes layover at Chesterfield railway station, four in Chesterfield town centre (two in the other direction) and six minutes in Bakewell.
Just to confuse things, Derbyshire County Council’s website is showing a timetable with different times to Stagecoach.
And, even more confusing, the timetable outside Chesterfield railway station, perhaps not surprisingly, hasn’t been updated so was still showing a third set of departure times…
…. which confused at least one passenger waiting to travel to Chatsworth House.
Irrespective of the departure times, rounding the service in two hours means a very tight timetable, based on evidence on Thursday morning…
…with an ambulance blocking a town centre road…
… followed by 4-way temporary lights…
… resulting in a 10 minute delay before we’d even left the town centre. And the bus had arrived late at the station from its previous journey, grabbing just a minute to get the four of us waiting on board instead of the scheduled two.
Two more passengers joined in the town centre and two more boarded in nearby Brampton. One travelled just a few stops within Brampton, two walkers from the station alighted at Baslow’s Robin Hood while at Baslow Church we picked up two more and dropped one off.
We passed the bus in the other direction in Baslow, which was running even later than us – 12 minutes behind schedule.
With some judicious driving by our driver we arrived at Chatsworth House six minutes late where one passenger (the confused lady, photographed at the station) alighted…
… and six boarded…
… finally arriving into Bakewell seven minutes late with 11 passengers alighting, having carried 16 in total on the trip.
Summer traffic delays in Bakewell are notorious and I have my doubts whether a two bus timetable is going to work when things gets busy. Perhaps Stagecoach needs to invest in a third bus and reinstate the route through Holymoorside, as High Peak were going to do.
It’s a lovely part of the country to run buses and it’s always a shame to see a long established bus operator cease trading, especially one with a long respected pedigree like Hulleys
But it’s been an interesting five years under Alf’s ownership. The kite flying introduction of route X57 over the Snake Pass six months after Alf took over the company was a much welcomed initiative but as I commented at the time one that had questionable commercial justification, not least when it was extended on to Manchester Airport. I couldn’t see how it would make money.
The spoiler (against Stagecoach) open-top Peak Breezer service I described in August 2023 left me underwhelmed especially as readers may recall it didn’t run and nor did my connecting bus on route 170 from Chesterfield station that day, necessitating an expensive taxi to keep the planned day out on track.
I’d also emailed the company prior to the trip asking for clarification about a couple of queries but received no reply.
Sadly no one will be receiving replies now.
Although, as of last night it’s website was still up and running as if nothing has happened. Check it out.
Roger French
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The local bus industry has done extremely well in its response to Hulley’s failure.
My understanding is that the High Peak 170 timetable was Monday to Saturday, whereas Stagecoach was 7 days, hence the County Council backing two horses.
Hopefully High Peak’s planning for extra resources was used to cover the 272 route, so not totally wasted. It would have been folly to enter accidental competition with Stagecoach.
Chesterfield has seen some thinning out of service in the last couple of years and Hulley’s will move it further into being a one operator town, certainly on commercial work. I can only think of Trent Barton’s Cornet coming in.
One strange outcome was that the tendered services were well covered, but the presumably better used commercial services have seen cuts. The 170 does suffer from traffic congestion in the summer especially, so a two bus operation is heroic.
Gareth Cheeseman
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It’s common for councils to make sure that previously contracted services, which they have budgeted for, are provided with the same level of service as before when there’s any problem with the operator, but previously commercial services are seen as nothing to do with them – seemingly an assumption that if a route was once thought to be commercially viable (even if that turned out not to be the case!) then it must always remain commercially viable – and so ostensibly busier and more necessary routes can be left with little or no service because councils can’t or won’t find “extra” money, and won’t reallocate the funding already set aside proportionately to the new needs of the community.
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the people of wingerworth have been left with out a bus service. thanks to hulleys how can old people walk 2miles to derby road bus stop to get to claycross or chesterfield.the people of wingerworth are in dire strates as NO BUS SERVICE!!!!!!🤣🤣🤣
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even when Hulley’s was operational they didn’t seem to be able to keep their website up-to-date, so not that surprising that it’s still there
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First South Yorkshire route 80 also reaches Chesterfield.
Ian McNeil
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A lot of people seem to have missed the point that the High Peak 170 would have had no Sunday service. Hence a totally understandable decision by the council.
I think it’s inevitable that Stagecoach will have to add a third bus, which will also enable Holymoorside to be served.
Steve
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The Hulleys 170 was supported by BSIP money for the evening and Sunday journeys. It’s not impossible High Peak were intending to discuss whether that would be available to them after they’d started providing the basic service. The Sunday Holymoorside service has been supported for a very long time for example, decades.
The nature of the Stagecoach registration does not suggest to me any intention to incorporate a Holymoorside service, or to maintain the link from this side of Chesterfield to the hospital. It’s likely to end up costing the council more to support a stand-alone service to meet the needs of the areas omitted than it would to support provision of funding for High Peak to run evenings and Sundays.
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As both High Peak and Stagecoach registrations were commercial, then the only input from the council would have been backing short notice introduction.
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Can’t say Hulleys” well documented amateurism of late will be missed.
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I for one will not miss this company like many horrible and down right disgusting bus companies that still operate
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John’s learned to type
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Here is a summary of who is running the former Hulleys routes now:
6 (commercial) – no operator
55 (commercial) – no operator
63 (tendered) – Stagecoach
110/111 (tendered) – Ashbourne Community Transport
170 (commercial) – Stagecoach (this will act as a Peak Sightseer feeder service in the summer)
172 (tendered) – Andrews of Tideswell
173 (tendered) – Andrews of Tideswell
178 (tendered) – Andrews of Tideswell
257 (part tendered) – Andrews of Tideswell (Mon-Sat) and South Pennine Community Transport (Sunday)
271/272 (commercial) – High Peak (joint service with First bus)
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When you have the 257 as part tendered, do you know which parts?
I’m struggling to understand how the council were able to tender this service in the first place when the Hulleys registration was mainly commercial with only certain journeys tendered.
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If as the article states the drives took the buses that probably amounts to theft. Probably at that stage they still belonged to Hulleys but would come under the control of the administrator when apointed
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From Forum posts the ownership of the buses is questionable.
On Tuesday afternoon the entrance to Hulley’s depot was blocked by protesters with returning buses parking on the road until moving to Andrews yard.
Hulley’s closed at that point. The drivers were not going to be paid.
There are unanswered questions here.
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The Drivers were always going to be paid and some behaved disgustingly given the favours and help provided to them in the past.
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170 – From Chesterfield Station to Bakewell Square
Stagecoach timetable 58 minutes (+10 or 12 mins for Holymoorside)
Hulley’s timetabled 59 minutes including the double run to Holymoorside.
So Stagecoach have already allowed extra running time. Maybe that is why Hulley’s ran late or not at all.
Derbyshire CC also has the problem that we are only a few days from the end of the financial year.
##
I believe Andrews run the 6 Lady Manners school journeys and not the out and back feeders.
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Hulleys did often swap vehicles around to keep the service going, well at least until the travails of the last few months.
The 170 today was running with delays for late morning onwards, typically 20-30 minutes, and it didn’t seem all that busy (traffic-wise) when I was out. The same two buses ran all day, so nothing was done to recover those delays.
It will be interesting to see how things pan out over the Easter school break, when Chatsworth starts becoming properly busy. It’s a service where it’s impossible to get a viable timetable (that doesn’t have about half an hour recovery built in) but it can be managed to adding extra buses in at peak times. Let’s see if Stagecoach are prepared to do that, or are happy to run with the same sort of delays that Hulleys were heavily criticised for.
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Unfortunately the detailed timings have been removed from Bustimes, but I believe Hulleys ran non-stop between the Railway Station and New Beetwell Street. This would allow them to run via the A61, considerably reducing the time between stops and avoiding areas prone to delay. Getting out of Brewery Street at busy times can take a very long time for example.
The fact they were timed 6 minutes less between the station and NBS would confirm this, so the Stagecoach timings aren’t as generous in comparison as at first sight.
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The Carsington Connection branded vehicle is ex Hulleys; Andrews were operating the service on Wednesday (all the tendered services were started by them a day early) but no sure how it being used on Thursday as reports elsewhere are that Asboubne were running the services with two 16 seater minibuses in convoy.
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Commendable speed with which most of the replacing services were operated. Small wonder Ashbourne Community Transport got a Solo into action, as had to operate two 16-seaters in convoy on the first day! Doubtless Stagecoach will soon re-jig schedules to allow for tight running on the 170, and yes, will have more confidence in using it now after being left twice (out of three journeys) at Chesterfield in the last couple of years as a result of non-operation by Hulleys.
But what red meat for the anti-deregulation lobby, and I am sure will get a mention in the next bit of SYCA’s propaganda when “taking back control”. Forgetting of course that similar things happen even when operators are working under franchise.
But perhaps the saddest aspect is seeing yet again a once respected and long established company end abruptly in confusion and almost farce, with Police even stationed by the garage “to keep the peace”. Welcome to the UK 2025.
Terence Uden
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However it appears some of the commercial routes have not been covered after Hulleys collapse. If this was a franchised operation those would have been under the same umbrella as the DCC supported services and new operators would have been saught.
Instead these services have simply been dumped with no replacement at very little notice. Hardly an incentive to use the bus over say, car travel when it can vanish with no warning.
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Completely agree. Compare and contrast the Hulleys situation with Sullivan Buses pulling out of their TfL work.
Derbyshire County Council not tendering commercially-operated services and no-takers coming forward just proves you can’t leave things to the market.
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Exactly, leaving things to the market is a fallacy.
Sadly some commentators would rather resort to ideological posturing, despite being more than old enough to know better!
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Police turned up outside the garage because access to it was blocked by breakdown trucks -not really ‘protesters’ -belonging to a garage who are allegedly a creditor of Hulleys, and the resulting tailback was blocking the main road outside. The situation was resolved fairly quickly.
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There is certainly a lot if inaccurate speculation doing the rounds about the Hulleys saga and unfortunately some of it has filtered into this report (although mostly corrected in the comments).
It is understood that all of Hulleys vehicles were leased (even the older ones), so when it became apparent that they were not going to be able to operate on the Wednesday, arrangements were commendably made with the administrator and the leasing companies for the older buses to be transferred to Andrews and for the drivers to be loaned to Andrews to operate them on the Wednesday. As a result, all of Hulleys tendered services were operated on the Wednesday with vehicles in Hulleys livery (albeit some had already lost their fleetnames overnight!). This included the Matlock to Ashbourne service, but Ashbourne Community Transport took that over as expected on the Thursday using Mercedes Sprinters (the photo of the Solo in the article was taken in Bakewell whilst it was running a different service).
Possibly the biggest loss from all of this is the commercial service 55 from Chesterfield to Alfreton via Wingerworth, Pilsley and Tibshelf, which Hulleys took over when Stagecoach dropped it a few years ago. This hourly service required three vehicles and Hulleys managed to build up passenger usage quite well, such that latterly it always seemed to be busier than Hulleys traditional services. However, unfortunately no-one seems to want to take it on commercially, which has left several sizable communities with no conventional bus service, so it remains to be seen if Derbyshire CC bow to public (and political) pressure and find the money to replace it with a tendered service – provided an operator can be found for it of course.
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The two tow trucks turned up at Baslow with a debt collector to collect their alleged £12000 debt and deliberately blocked the yard in an effort to extract repayment of that debt. Matters became heated and the police were called, who arrived after two hours. The police’s role was to keep the peace. The situation deteriorated when issues arose over pay, and one of the drivers called all of the buses in from the road at about 1430. A couple of drivers commendably refused as they correctly felt they had an obligation to carry schoolchildren home.
Most of the Hulleys fleet was financed through Go Coach, I understand 5 vehicles not included. Presumably once the tender results had been announced on Tuesday morning Andrews did a deal with Go Coach to acquire the fleet that Go Coach owned, and the two trucks were at Baslow to collect two vehicles which were non runners, departing late afternoon to Andrews depot. Meanwhile the drivers were instructed to take the vehicles to Andrews depot. All of the was orchestrated by one of Hulleys managers who it appears is now running Andrews bus operation from Tideswell. It appears ancillary equipment including the ticket equipment, which is fixed to the buses, also transferred. Alf Crofts was subject to considerable intimidation during Tuesday afternoon, and it is understood he was not party to Andrews acquisition of the fleet.
It is unlikely the administrator or liquidator was involved as they would not have been appointed until Thursday.
As has been said elsewhere Hulleys tenders appear to be on a more stable footing in the short term,Stagecoach have registered an unworkable timetable, and Holymoorside and all the communities on the 55 route are without a bus service.
Once Derbyshire had decided to retender Hulleys supported services it was inevitable that the company would fail regardless of other events, and from what has happened it appears that Derbyshire made no attempt to discuss commercial or part commercial replacements with other operators, a massive failure of their duty to coordinate.
There may be further changes over the next few weeks.
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A very clear overview, thanks for that. I do wonder how Go Coach ended up financing so much of the fleet, as I thought a number of the vehicles were already owned prior to Mr Crofts becoming involved with them.
Presumably the reason the aren’t tracking at present despite having ticket machines is an agreement needs to be reached with Ticketer and the appropriate feeds set up?
I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t think DCC come out of this very well. The smug way they said that removing the contracts would allow Hulleys to concentrate on their commercial services was very unprofessional. If they really thought Hulleys would be able to carry on after having all tendered work removed then they quite obviously have no knowledge of how businesses work.
They now seem keen to hide behind the fact they can’t tender commercial services while having seemingly done nothing to find out what other operators intended to register or to negotiate with them in an attempt to find a solution that worked for the residents of Derbyshire. I particularly can’t understand this claim to not be able to get involved in commercial services when one service which they re-tendered, the 257, was mostly operated on a commercial basis by Hulleys. It’s been tendered to a higher frequency that has traditionally been seen on this route, despite many of the places served having other connections. It seems strange they can enhance this one route but not any others, nor provide any service at all for some communities.
I hope you are correct that there will be changes, but I fear that overall the way the council handled this is likely to mean higher levels of subsidy meaning money isn’t available elsewhere.
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The “manager” I believe was a Maltese lady who used to work for and is friends with Austin Blackburn of Go Coach who, between them and Russell Andrew, orchestrated the hastened demise of Hulleys. She regularly pulled buses off the road for a variety of soft reasons resulting in the lost mileage that caused DCC to pull the tenders. Then, with three guys led by a woman, possibly a transvestite from Mount Pleasant Motoring called “Linda” prevented Mr Crofts from leaving his office, and within just 2 hours the buses, drivers and contracts all went to Andrews. Hard to believe all of that wasn’t coordinated. Also there are rumours that Mr Blackburn paid the Hulleys manager her mortgage for her part in the exercise.
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One further correction to the above – it is understood that the company actually went into receivership at 10.40am on the Monday (24th March), with the Administrator taking over at that point. In a notice to staff issued that day, the owner of Hulleys attributed the closure partly to the company’s insurance policy being due to expire on 26th March and it not being possible to economically extend it or find a suitable alternative
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Ahh the so-called “first registration onto the desk” rule – the same one that ensured the long suffering 479 Guildford – Epsom passengers endured another couple of years of misery after Countryliner until a competent operator eventually had to pick up the pieces after two further operator failures.
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I am glad that my dealings with Derbyshire were long ago in my motorcycle era (Honda CD175s) initially on L-Plates: an abortive visit to the Crich Tramway Museum on a day it was closed and to Chesterfield so as to visit the church with the twisted spire. A Honda ignition key is mightier than any bus pass, but I most certainly left it in place on a number of occasions when I went off shopping. With the ignition lock below the fuel tank my key was largely out of sight, after all.
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High Peak were first out of the blocks with their press release on the 170, debatable whether they were first out of the blocks with the registration not that counts for much. I believe Stagecoach won the race to publish a timetable which is probably more an indicator of when the registration was submitted than when the press release was issued.
I suspect their withdrawal once they learned of the Stagecoach registration was more to do with their driver shortage and the distance from the depot in Dove Holes to the route. They spent much of Tuesday trying to tempt Hulleys drivers over with limited success so when you’re already short staffed registering 3 extra pvr miles away from base isn’t the wisest move. At least the 272 is less resource to cover when you’re already struggling.
A sad end to Hulleys after a roller coaster few years. Hulleys ultimately went under because costs exceeded revenue, explains why operators are not totally willing to take on Hulleys commercial routes on a ‘like for like’ basis. DCC need to step up and issue emergency tenders for the mileage that clearly isn’t commercially viable but is socially necessary.
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I definitely saw a High Peak timetable for the 170 before Stagecoach had one linked from their website. They did put an announcement out which for a few hours said ‘here’ but no link to the timetable.
Whether it was published elsewhere I don’t know.
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So the council terminated the contract due to buses regularly missing certain sections of their routes? This would of been the result of the drivers skipping them to save time wrongly assuming there would be no passengers.
So the solution is to re-tender the contracts to other companies who have ploued those same drivers to continue the services?
Please someone make make that make sense!
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Well maybe poor management allowed drivers to behave like this? It is inevitable that some of the existing drivers will end up on the same routes again, it’s whether they get away with poor performance going forward that’s the key.
I wonder if TUPE (transfer of conditions) rules apply in the case of insolvency like this?
Dan Tancock
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The drivers were messaged to take the buses to Andrews depot. Four have already left Derbyshire with Connexions taking three, Enviro 200 YX12 DHN and the two Evoras Y100HOB & BV23NVH, while a Solo has gone to TM Travel.
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Bus Passenger Satidfaction Survy
More of an option poll then a sensible survy, Some of i maj no sense/ It has punctiality at the bus stop and waiting time at the bus stop. Surely the later dendes on hoe esarly you get to the stop so is meaingless
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makes as much sense as your post…
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Bob gets a little excited sometimes, the ray of sunshine that he is.
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A point on the involvement of the liquidator. As the buses noted were owned by Go Coach the liquidator of Hulleys would not have been involved, no connection between him and Go Coach
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pilsley left without a bus service.
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Notts and Derby will be running the 55 as of this Friday – so Pilsley and other places on the route regain a bus after 9 days without.
Still leaves Holymoorside and the former 170 section through Hady and Spital without a regular bus service.
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And now Derbyshire CC have put out a request for tenders for a new 84 running hourly between Holymoorside and Royal Hospital Calow covering the missing sections. Closing date tomorrow (4th April) at 1pm and asking that service starts asap and ‘by the end of next week at the latest’.
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The tender for the 84 was duly won by Stagecoach who commenced today (Monday 7th April) running every 75 minutes NESu. The affected communities (Holymoorside, Hady and Spital) were therefore left without a regular bus service for 12 days.
As far as I can see, it is only Morton on the 55 which is left unserved by the new arrangements following Hulley’s demise, although there are quite a few places have lost evening and Sunday services. Whether DCC takes steps to reintroduce these in due course remains to be seen !
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Many thanks to this site and comments section for giving two Hulley spotters a lot of context to the closure. We’re hardly able to bemoan this closure overmuch as we spotted the buses from our car as we drove around the area when out shopping. We would have used Hulley more, but last time we did so from Sheffield (Hallam area) to Bakewell, the return trip ended at Ladybower. Only when we argued with the driver that we had tickets into Sheffield did he grudgingly agree to carry us on! And like the comments above, after a couple of attempts to email Hulley over a number of issues we never got a reply.. What a sad end to all that history. Really depressing to see the buses coming through outskirts of Sheffield with the logos all removed. Simon
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The Notts & Derby 55 does not serve Morton. Derbyshire CC say they have partyly funded to the service to allow places to be served that commercially the operator would not so presuambly neither consider consider there is custom their.
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There was always money in the bank for wages, and the hastened closure was certainly coordinated between 3 people who will shortly be suitably dealt with.
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Does anyone know who the Leader of Tideswell Parish Council is, as I’ve heard that person put some pressure on DCC to pull the contracts from Hulleys. If anyone know can they please post a reply.
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