2009 parent d & g bus founded 1963 defunct 8 may 2015 headquarters stoke on trent service area derbyshire staffordshire service type bus services routes 39 october 2013 fleet 64 december 2010 website www.wardletransport.com northern counties palatine bodied volvo olympian in october 2012 plaxton beaver 2 bodied mercedes benz vario o814d in june 2013 x50 branded wright eclipse gemini bodied vdl db250 in september 2012 wardle transport is a bus operating company based in stoke on trent staffordshire england . formed in 1963 as jack s of norton it expanded from 2001 to operate a network of local bus routes using over 60 vehicles . contents 1 history 2 services 3 references 4 external links history edit wardle transport was founded in 1963 by doug wardle . it initially traded as jack s of norton and was run alongside travel agent wardle travel . for its first 38 years of existence the company operated a small fleet of minibuses on school services . in 2002 contracts to operate two routes in stoke on trent were won ; these were operated with three optare alero minibuses hired from stoke on trent city council . one of these routes was withdrawn in 2004 . following first potteries maximum allowable vehicles being cut wardle gained three school services acquiring its first double decker vehicles to operate the routes . 1 2 a new route linking hanley haywood hospital and burslem was launched in early 2006 . the route supported by the city council replaced a route withdrawn by another operator but was initially found not to be commercially viable . 3 in 2007 the company won a contract to operate services to stoke city football club home matches initially using four double deck buses . 2 the services proved popular and the following season saw eight buses used . 4 four new commercial routes were also introduced in 2008 . 2 a new direct service linking blurton to hanley branded as plumline was introduced in 2008 . an optare versa single decker was bought for use on the route . 5 in december 2010 wardle transport was sold to arriva and placed under the control of its arriva midlands subsidiary . 6 7 arriva stated that wardle s identity would be retained . 8 at the time of the takeover wardle employed 105 staff and operated a fleet of 64 buses and ran 18 scheduled services . 9 a new livery of two tone red and white applied in arriva s corporate style was introduced in june 2011 . 10 in august 2011 arriva midlands purchased the staffordshire routes of d & g bus with 46 routes and 30 buses and these were integrated into wardle transport . 11 12 in april 2012 wardle transport commenced operating route x50 to derby . 13 on 9 may 2015 d & g bus purchased wardle transport back from arriva midlands . 14 15 services edit as at october 2013 wardle transport operate 39 bus routes . 16 references edit history of wardle transport wardle transport a b c beeton cliff november 2008 . wardle transport a story of steady growth . buses . ian allan publishing 644 26 28 . use it or lose it bus message . bbc news . 24 february 2006 . retrieved 2 february 2011 . buses ease soccer snarl ups . the sentinel . 16 august 2008 . retrieved 2 february 2011 . purple patch for new bus . the sentinel . 29 november 2008 . retrieved 4 february 2011 . arriva midlands announces acquisition of wardle transport arriva 8 december 2010 arriva boosts midlands bus operation with wardle transport purchase . transport xtra . 9 december 2010 . arriva buys wardle transport . indiser media . 9 december 2010 . millar alan january 2011 . arriva acquisition takes it into first country . buses 670 15 . lidstone john g. july 2011 . fleet news england & wales . buses 676 60 61 . arriva midlands acquires d & g busandcoach.com 10 june 2011 d & g buses bought by arriva owners blame subsidy cuts for sale the sentinel 11 june 2011 brand new x county bus link coming soon arriva d & g bus to takeover wardle transport routes d & g buys wardle transport bus & coach buyer 18 march 2015 timetables wardle transport external links edit media related to wardle transport at wikimedia commons company website v t e bus operators in the west midlands herefordshire first midland red as part of first midlands shropshire arriva midlands bryn melyn minsterley motors tanat valley coaches staffordshire arriva midlands bakerbus diamond bus first potteries as part of first midlands midland classic wardle transport part of d & g bus warwickshire johnsons coach & bus travel stagecoach in warwickshire as part of stagecoach midlands transport for west midlands arriva midlands central buses diamond bus hanson s local buses national express coventry national express west midlands the green bus travel de courcey worcestershire diamond bus first midland red as part of first midlands hardings national megabus national express retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wardle transport & oldid 704980637 categories bus operators in derbyshirebus operators in staffordshirecompanies based in stoke on trenthidden categories use dmy dates from may 2015commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 14 february 2016 at 20 24 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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