THE NEW town centre shuttle bus has been praised by shoppers and staff at a local business complex and will now go on an initial one-year trial.

A bus linking the town's two railway stations to the centre of town was one of the biggest requests at last year's Golden Square shopping centre public exhibition.

Now the new service also links Centre Park with more than 2,500 people who use the service every week and is attracting staff who want to go into town at lunchtime.

The North West Development Agency recently opened new headquarters at Centre Park and along with Centre Park management decided to jointly fund the new bus service with the borough council.

Golden Square shopping centre manager Andrew Ward said: "I'm not surprised the service is proving so popular as it was a recurring subject at our exhibition last year.

"It's great that this partnership initiative was able to come up with this solution."

Nigel Featham, managing director of Warrington Borough Transport, said: "The borough council had for some time wanted to provide a shuttle service but were unable to fund it single-handedly.

"Passenger reaction has been excellent - this is a great example of a partnership working to promote integrated transport."

An initial one-year trial for the bus, which runs every 20 minutes Monday to Friday at a flat fare of 20p, has been agreed.