Shock over Wolverhampton Bus Station

More than a third of bus services calling on Wolverhampton will never use the city's new £22.5 million bus station when it opens at 6am on Sunday.

Services, many travelling in from as far afield as Stafford, Cannock and Walsall, will instead drop passengers off on city centre streets.

A map released today detailing where buses will run reveals that 22 out of 55 services will not go to the new Pipers Row station.

It means thousands of passengers a day face a lengthy walk from their bus stop to catch a connecting bus or train.

Centro, which owns the new terminus, will charge bus companies a fee – thought to be around 50p – every time a bus leaves the station.

But it today said the route changes were for operational reasons and nothing to do with costs, which are in line with those charged at the old station.

Among those affected are workers at Lloyds Banking Group in Pendeford, formerly Birmingham Midshires, whose bus will terminate in Stafford Street rather than the bus station.

* Special report in Monday's Express & Star.