THE Green Bus has brought a double decker service back to Kinver for the first time in decades.

Bus company operators, who are on a mission to take unnecessary car journeys off the road by offering high quality bus services, have started running a service from Kinver to Stourbridge and Merry Hill to compliment the existing 228 Diamond bus service which runs every two hours.

The Green Bus 242 service runs from Kinver through Stourton to Stourbridge Junction, Stourbridge, Withymoor Village and onto the intu Merry Hill shopping centre and vice versa.

Services run every two hours on weekdays from Kinver, starting at 8.10am - with the last service to Stourbridge at 4.10pm and the last return service from Merry Hill leaving at 3.25pm.

The service, which will run until August 28, includes a stop at Sainsbury's at Withymoor before continuing to Merry Hill and it also goes to Stourbridge Junction railway station so passengers can connect to trains going to Worcester and Birmingham.

Ian Mack, spokesman for The Green Bus, said the new route provides connections that previously didn't exist and he added: "It's the 228 with a twist."

The Green Bus is also offering an August Saturday shopper special which will run from Wolverhampton to Kidderminster, taking in Kinver, on four Saturdays in August - starting from this weekend (Saturday August 1).

The 582 service will run once a day from Wolverhampton, through Penn Common, Wombourne, Bobbington, Enville, Kinver, Cookley, and onto Kidderminster - terminating at Sainsbury's and leaving shoppers two hours and 15 minutes to do their shopping before they need to catch the return bus home. The timetable was being finalised as this article was published. To find out more go to thegreenbus.co.uk.

Tickets will cost £3 for a single and £5 for a return, and pensioners can use their free bus passes.

The company's spokesman said: "We hope people enjoy it."

He said the services were a commercial experiment to see how much interest they generate and he added that Kinver has not had double deckers running through the village for 40 to 50 years since Midland Red services ceased.

David Williams, cabinet member for Highways and Transport at Staffordshire County Council, said: "The additional bus services offered by The Green Bus is great news for local communities and I hope residents support it over the summer. The company’s use of double decker buses will also help welcome people back to public transport with plenty of room to accommodate social distancing. We hope the service will be a success and we will be encouraging them to consider longer term provision.”

The Green Bus is also looking at providing a service to Kinver High School from September.