Tuesday 5th May 2026
Yet another spat between bus operators broke out last week. This time in Burton-on-Trent.
It follows the award of a tender for routes 402 and 403 between Burton-on-Trent and Uttoxeter via various Staffordshire villages, to Buslink, the company set up in 2023 by James Boddice who sold his previous business, the highly regarded Midland Classic, to Rotala owned Diamond Bus the previous year.
Until last week, the previous tender for routes 402 and 403 had been operated by Diamond Bus with the two routes complimenting the long standing Diamond Bus (former Midland Classic) commercial route 401 which takes a more direct route between Burton-on-Trent and Uttoxeter and runs hourly. The 402 and 403 each run two-hourly making for two buses an hour between Burton-on-Trent and Uttoxeter albeit via three different route variations on the three routes.
On hearing they’d lost the 402/403 tender to Buslink, Diamond Bus decided to run part of the route commercially, registering an additional hourly short 401 from Burton-on-Trent to the village of Tutbury, five miles north east of Burton as detailed on its “Enhanced Timetable” on its website.
That put the County Council in a quandary as it needed to maintain the 402 to villages further along the route but didn’t want the tendered route to compete with the new additional once an hour commercial journey to Tutbury.
It told Buslink to alter the route of the 402 as it heads out of Burton-on-Trent to avoid Queen’s Hospital and run via Horninglow Road instead as mentioned on the Buslink website.
Understandably Buslink was miffed at this as this new commercial journey would undermine the assumed revenue on the important southern part of the tendered route so registered its own competing hourly route 401 between Burton-on-Trent, Queen’s Hospital and Tutbury.
Hopefully the map below will explain this rather complicated situation with the contested section of route between Burton-on-Trent and Tutbury shown in blue (bottom right) and the red (401), purple (402) and orange (403) routes continuing as before, albeit with Buslink operating the latter two under a new tender.
The upshot of all this is from Monday of last week the village of Tutbury (population 3,500) has never seen so many buses with two new short workings into Burton-on-Trent (one Buslink and one Diamond, both numbered 401) in addition to the hourly 401 to/from Uttoxeter (Diamond) and the two hourly 402 (Buslink) but it also sees another commercially operated route called Tutbury Jinnie (known as TJ for short) operated by a company called Evolve Bus & Coach – the latest bus company to be run by Michael James – with this hourly route running between Burton-on-Trent and Tutbury via the village of Rolleston-on-Dove. This is also run commercially on a route that was previously tendered.
Another case where Evolve wasn’t successful in its bid to run the tender so decided to run the route ‘commercially’.
And just to complete the picture Burton-on-Trent to Tutbury is also served by TrentBarton’s long standing Villager branded route which runs twice an hour, also via Rolleston-on-Dove.
From the foregoing readers may appreciate the lucky residents of Tutbury are now enjoying six or seven buses an hour to and from Burton-on-Trent: two from Diamond Bus (401); one hourly from Buslink (401) and one every two hours from Buslink (402); two from TrentBarton and one from Evolve (the latter three via Rolleston-on-Dove). It’s quite a service for a small Stafforshire village and is completely unsustainable.
But the question is, who will blink first? I popped up to Burton-on-Trent last Thursday (the fourth day of the new arrangements) to take a look at how things were panning out on the ground.
Diamond, Buslink, TrentBarton and Evolve all pick up at a common stop in New Street in the town centre which at certain times each hour makes for an interesting collection of buses.
Currently Diamond’s 401 to Uttoxeter leaves at 15 minutes past with the short to Tutbury at 45 minutes past while Buslink’s 402 leaves at 20 minutes past the even hour (a 403 generally leaves at 20 on the odd hour), and the 401 short to Tutbury at 40 minutes past the hour. Evolve Buses via Rolleston-on-Dove leave at 11 minutes past the hour with TrentBarton’s Villager leaving for Derby at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour.
Add to this Diamond Bus local route 6 also leaves at 10 and 40 minutes past the hour and its route 10 at 25 minutes past the hour and its quite a melee at 10-11-15-15-20 past the hour and again at 40-40-45-45 particularly as Diamond and Buslink’s buses layover for a few minutes whereas Evolve and TrentBarton commence their journeys in another road a short distance away.
This led to some personal frustration as I was planning on catching the 12:11 Evolve departure to kick my travels off, but the bus just drove past as a Diamond and Buslink bus were both on the stand. It only had two or three passengers on board too.
I decided to let the 12:15 Diamond bus 401 departure go (with one passenger on board) and boarded the 12:20 Buslink 402 bound for Uttoxeter which thankfully pulled in just beyond the waiting 6 and 401…
… and also picked up one passenger as the Diamond Bus 401 set off and overtook.
As mentioned earlier the 402 takes a new route out of Burton-on-Trent instead of the previous arrangement of serving Queens Hospital while the 401 is currently on a diversion due to a road closure near Burton-on-Trent railway station.
This is expained on the Diamond Bus website.
Diamond Bus and Evolve Bus & Coach do a circuit of Tutbury before returning to Burton-on-Trent as shown on the Diamond Bus online bus tracking page, although it looks a bit fiendish without arrows…
… and I caught the 12:40 Diamond Bus ‘short working’ having done that curcuit back to Burton-on-Trent with no-one on as I boarded…
… although we did pick a couple up when we got to Queens Hospital where we had to wait for a Buslink 401 short working to Tutbury pick up at the common stop for both directions.
I noticed there seemed to be a dearth of information about the Buslink 401/402 at bus stops along the route which seemed uncharacteristic for a company that, like Midland Classic before it, prides itself on excellence in information provision, especially noting an attractive timetable leaflet complete with map…
… was available inside the buses.
I asked a Buslink member of staff who was on hand in Burton-on-Trent about this and was alarmed to be told timetable cases with timetables were erected at stops over the first weekend but had mysteriously all been taken down by “persons unknown” which is concerning to hear, not least when some of the information on display from Diamond Bus was blatantly out of date including promoting the £3 fare which the Company has withdrawn from and advertising a 7 Days unlimited travel ticket across the Diamond Bus East Midlands Network for £24 when the correct price is £28.
Buslink still participates in the £3 fare cap and that might just make a difference as this latest bus battle pans out. I understand Diamond Bus has registered an amended timetable for the 401 to apply from next month which, surprise, surprise will see both its departures from Burton-on-Trent retimed to be five minutes in front of Buslink.
But as often happens as I come away from seeing skirmishes of this kind on the road (and there have been quite a few in the last few months) it was noticeable just how few passengers there were, not least in this case with four operators running between the village of Tutbury and Burton-on-Trent.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
“The 402 takes a new route out of Tutbury” should refer to Burton?
Robin Bence
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Thanks Robin; now corrected.
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£3 for Buslink compared with the closely guarded secret fare which you will get charged by Diamond… When will bus companies be forced, by law, to publish all relevant fares on their website, rather than just advertising day (and longer) tickets, similar to Stagecoach.
Especially when Labour decides to pull the plug on the £3 fare cap scheme
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£4 flat fare for Diamond.
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I aam disappointed that Chaserider haven’t got a dog in the race as I could get to Tutbury from Walsall on 1 ticket.
It’s a pretty village but it doesn’t need so many buses…
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TrentBarton’s long standing route to Tutbury is Villager.
John Nicholas
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Thanks, corrected.
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You can already get to Tutbury with a Staffordshire Knot ticket – valid on D&G and Diamond
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Maybe Roger could blog a regular update on bus battles every six months or so with the outcome, those still battling and where there are winners and losers. Planning a journey to Pickering in Yorkshire, I recall Roger reporting on a battle there. It looks like that has now concluded with EY the winner and now being able to drop the frequency to one every 2 hours generally.
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East Yorkshire had already dropped to two hourly BEFORE Viscount went out of business
BW2
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Beggars belief that in these incredibly difficult times for operators there are still some out there that think it’s 1986.
No wonder there’s such a push in some quarters for franchising and re-regulation. Unless you’re a complete neo-liberal free-marketer it’s hard to argue against when you see situations such as this still going on.
Steve
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How does an operator who lost the tender bid think that it can now run the route commercially? If they think they can, then any bid they tendered must have grossly inflated in the hope of making large profits, otherwise their tender should have been £0.
MotCO
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Well, MOTCO, in this instance, it was only the bit between Tutbury and Burton which is regarded as commercial and is essentially a Burton local bus service for much of its route. It was always the commercial element in an overall tender – that is what Diamond registered. The bit between Uttoxeter and Tutbury is much more sparsely populated in intensely rural territory. That was, and is still, requiring subsidy.
BW2
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Although not completely related to the situation in question (there have always been commercial elements of these services), 100% agree with the general thrust of your argument.
I think it’s about being risk averse.
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Burton seems to be quite a hotbed for competition at the moment, as, lest we forget, the X38 spat still goes on between Arriva and Trentbarton, the latter now seemingly having the upper hand. Doubtful, in the present circumstances this can last long, as none of the Operators are part of the big groups.
Terence Uden
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Are you following what is happening in Preston between Preston Bus and Stagecoach ?
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Indeed so.
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Most (All) the buses look like diesels. With ever increasing worries about oil availability at the moment, there is almost a moral reason to operate in a way to get the maximum number of passengers on buses, and avoid running around near-empty in unncessary competition.
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Diamond / Rotala to me seem to be the worse of the groups. Vehicle external presentation, timekeeping and fares do make me wonder how they manage to exist. They need a lot of consolidation of their own current services accross the country to provide clean , regular and reliable services , otherwise they may be many things but a diamond service is not one of them.
I note again on timetables the disappearence of buses after about 1830
JBC Prestatyn
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Utter Rubbish- It never ceases to surprise me how armchair so called bus enthusiast waffle on about in regard on spouting drivel compared to the reality of the actual services provided.
Within the West Midlands County Rotala provide an excellent service with Diamond Bus West Midlands with loads of 74 & 75 plate Enviro 200 on services contracted to Transport for West Midlands.
It has made an excellent job in taking over the 19 & 27 from the ailing National Express West Midlands this year.
Across Birmingham & The Black Country a large fleet of Streetlites operate its network of services along with a handful of Irelbus, B7s, Optares & cascaded Manchester Deckers.
The part of the West Midlands County I live in see Diamond Bus now operate the 4H 14 20 24 & 217.
As a daily user of Diamond Bus West Midlands I see NO evidence of the drivel spoken of here about Rotala who are now one of the biggest employees in Sandwell.
The reality of what I see & use is a professional premium quality operation actually valued & enjoyed by the actual people who use the services & not the utter drivel spoken of on here.
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I can sort of understand spats between the big groups as they seek to monopolise certain areas. What I do find strange is operators who sell out to the bigger companies and immediately set up a new operation in the same area! Do they think the big companies will keep getting out their cheque book?
Obviously someone at Diamond got greedy with the tender price and was under cut, very much like the situation in Chelmsford. It is a shame that 40 years into deregulation some basic lessons have not been learnt.
Richard Warwick
PS – the Jinny was the local railway shuttle between Uttoxetter and Burton via Tutbury and Rolleston at one time.
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I believe that there was a covenant involved in the sale of Midland Classic but what duration… I don’t know. Phil Anslow has enjoyed two cheques from Stagecoach btw but has served both their required spells out of the industry.
BW2
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I’m afraid BW2 is wrong, the whole service was a tender, and always has been. Diamond registered the busier ( although with 7 buses per hour possibly not) section of route plus the school journeys presumably in the hope that Buslink would then not accept the tender.
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Apologies for not being clearer. The 402 route has always been tendered – that is correct. However, when you look at the route in total, the good end of the route has massively outweighed the poor end and that has been factored into the tender price.
Of course, Diamond’s move has been to undermine Buslink’s tender so that by depriving them of the most lucrative elements (i.e. via the hospital), the overall revenue that they had factored in is reduced and that Buslink’s sums don’t add up.
BW2
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401 has always been commercial Burton – Tutbury – Uttoxeter. Staffs CC did fund an evening / Sunday service at one time but this has long ceased.
402 has been tendered for many years – and has in effect run over the top of 401 between Burton and Tutbury, which is why it doesn’t serve the estate in Tutbury (and also now the Hospital) – to serve Draycott, Coton and Fauld it must go through Tutbury on the way.
(by the way the route map of Tutbury above includes some extra roads which are not served and makes it look even more complicated than it actually is)
X12 User.
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BW2, how do you know Buslink’s sums do not add up, have you seen the tender results?
I actually think it’s Diamonds sums that may be a bit suspect, before they lost the tender they were using two vehicles on the whole of the 402/3 service,I think now they are still using two on the truncated 402, and the school buses, but they have lost the tender revenue and any passengers that Buslink carry.
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Anon 5:08 – I didn’t say that so please don’t misrepresent what I said. However, if you really want it spelt out so you’re in no doubt… Diamond has clearly sought to maintain it’s market share in Burton, registering a portion of the 402 to deprive Buslink of revenue. The hope is that by doing this, they undermine Buslink’s tender.
I don’t believe that anyone, and this is Roger’s contention, thinks that Diamond’s level of service, nor Buslink’s additional journeys, is sustainable. Therefore, it would be surprising to see either business faring well out of this.
I hope this clarifies any confusion you may have.
BW2
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Looking at the bus workings on bustimes, Buslinks 401 working fits around a school in the afternoon, with the morning AM peak journey fitting into the gap on the 402 tender caused by Diamond running that journey commercially.
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Why has Diamond withdrawn from the £3 bus cap? It’s so annoying when operators do that, knowing that a fixed maximum fare will apply is one of the things that bring people on to buses (at least it does me!)
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https://www.diamondbuses.com/news/dbem-single-fares-changes-april-26/ answers your questions.
There’s still a fixed fare (like many operators, Diamond East Midlands treated the £3 maximum fare as a flat fare), it’s just jumped to £4…
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A fairly clear cut example of how not to organise a bus service. What an extraordinary waste of resources – including diesel at this time of global shortage.
At least the problems with this way of doing things are now widely recognised. Compare to twenty years ago when there would have been an unholy alliance of industry executives and government competition agencies lecturing that this way was the only way and that anyone daring to suggest otherwise was some kind of unreconstructed communist.
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I totally agree that 6/7 buses an hour is unsustainable . If one goes back into history Tutbury had an hourly Stevensons 401 and an hourly Trent I think 16. Trent then revised their services and it became Villager every 30 minutes. Staffordshire then revised their tendered 402/3 to run more frequently with some journeys via Tutbury rather than via Anslow which also created a service from the villages and Tutbury to Burton District Hospital, a link missing before.
Somewhere along the line the Burton to Rolleston direct service was extended to Tutbury as well, and this route became tendered until Evolve decided it was commercial.
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And Bus Link also competes with Arriva on the Tamworth to Lichfield corridor which was introduced following changes to the Arriva routes between the two locations.
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Once again the whole “the private sector and it’s local managers are able to innovate and offer new services we wouldn’t get under London style franchising” meme is shown to be complete nonsense. Loads of buses carrying fresh air around during the day, while there is no evening service which you must have to convince households they can rely on owning a single car rather than two. And the fact that this happening at the same time as industry lobbyists are complaining about rising fuel prices meaning they might need extra subsidy is just mind boggling.
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Aside from the wider question of deregulation versus franchising, it would seem that a small tweak within the deregulated system would help to prevent this type of situation. Specifically, giving local authorities an optional veto power when a losing tenderer attempts to immediately register all or part of the tendered service commercially.
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Perhaps another tweak could be Traffic Commissioners not accepting service registrations two minutes ahead of an incumbent, and insist on them being halfway between the incumbent’s frequency.
Peter Brown
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My favourite infrequent service has gladly run recently. It operates one way only from the football ground in Ipswich to Christchurch Park. There was the main service and in the great historic realms of Wallace Arnold, there was a “duplicate” too. These are private services with passengers aboard needing to have achieved notable football success. It is such an important service that the police shut off the roads to other motorists. An interest in buses & trains is all very well but having Ipswich Town FC in one’s soul is marvellous at these junctures.
As to DIAMOND, glad that they are no longer party to the Surrey bus scene. Double cancellations on Sundays (Route 461) 0923 to church cancelled then 1700 bus home both cancelled owing to Diamond’s running diagrams. Three Diamond drivers utterly shocking and as their ticket machines issued nil slips for concessionaries I could cite their numbers but better not!
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