A FAMILY in Burtonwood claim that they have been left stranded by the cancellation of an evening bus service through the village.

Kate Burgess says that the 329 service from St Helens to Warrington town centre is the only bus which passes through Burtonwood to take her to work.

And now that it has been cancelled, she claims that she has been left stranded.

The 19-year-old works in a town centre shop along with her brother, 18-year-old Paul, and other friends from the village.

Kate says that her employers rely on her to work anything up to four late shifts a week, which do not finish until 9pm. Now that the bus service has been cancelled, she has no way of getting home at night and might have to quit her job as a result.

She said: "We have been told that the bus company which ran it in the evenings went out of business, but we were given no warning that it was being cancelled.

"I was left waiting in town for an hour-and-a-half because I didn't know it was not running.

"I have been told it is not commercially viable to run the service in the evenings because not enough people use it, but it still does business and people like me, my brother and my friends rely on it."

The bus, which is now operated by Warrington Borough Transport (WBT), runs until 7pm, Mondays to Saturdays.

Nigel Featham, managing director of WBT, said: "We understand North Star Buses, the Merseyside company which operated the evening and Sunday 329 service, has gone out of business.

"Passenger ridership on North Star's evening and Sunday service was very low.

"We have never operated these particular journeys in the past and, because of the significant losses it would entail, we are unable to take them on now.

"I can only express concern on behalf of the passengers affected by this loss of service."