BUSES in Salisbury will start operating from several new stops in the city when the bus station closes on January 5.

Salisbury Reds announced that they were to sell the bus station last year due to the high maintenance costs of the building, and due to only a third of its buses departing from the city centre using the station in Endless Street.

Most services will now operate to and from stops in Castle Street, Milford Street, Endless Street, Blue Boar Row and New Canal, which have been put in by Wiltshire Council. Many of the services will have a new bus stop location even if they didn't originally use the bus station, in a bid to minimise disruption to passengers and others travelling in the city.

Some timetables will be adjusted to help accommodate the changes and more buses will call at South Wilts School to reduce the number of students who would have to change buses in the city centre.

The allocation of which service will use each stop has been decided by the council based on the space required by buses and passengers.Andrew Sherrington, operations manager for Salisbury Reds, said he regrets any inconvenience caused due to the bus station sale but the ongoing cost of operating the station “would require steeper bus fare increases to sustain the underused facility”.

“We would prefer to invest in improving the services we offer than maintain the site that could be better used within the city centre,” he said. A vintage bus day is being held on January 5 to mark the end of more than 70 years of bus operations at Salisbury bus station.

Six special routes will be running using a selection of old vehicles, and all funds raised will be donated to Salisbury District Hospital's Stars Appeal.

More information about the changes can be found at salisburyreds.co.uk, by calling 0845 072 7092, from bus drivers or from the bus station. Salisbury Reds and Wiltshire Council will both have advisers in the city centre helping customers through the period of change.