IT will be the end of an era for the Salisbury bus service when the city’s bus station closes next week.

The bus station, which opened in August 1939, will be permanently closed and the service instead provided from bus stops around the city.

Wilts & Dorset announced it was to sell the bus station last year due to the high maintenance costs of the building, and said that 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. Andrew Sherrington, operations manager for Salisbury Reds, said he regretted 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”.

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 about 10 vintage vehicles from across the county, and all funds raised will be donated to Salisbury District Hospital’s Stars Appeal, with the total to be doubled by Go South Coast, which owns Salisbury Reds.

And there will also be a rare chance to see a new Bus for London outside the capital, which the firm has confirmed will be on routes in Salisbury on the same day.

More information about can be found at salisburyreds.co.uk or by calling 0845 072 7093.