A bus company has agreed to trial night buses from Liverpool to Chester – six months after the last night service was axed because of falling passenger numbers.

Stagecoach has agreed to run a night service from Liverpool to Chester on its 1 route on the last four Saturdays before Christmas, November 28 and December 5, 12, and 19.

Buses will depart from Sir Thomas Street at 00.05, 01.35 and 03.05 and passengers will pay a flat fare of £2. The service would observe the same “normal stopping places” as the daytime 1 route including stops in Ellesmere Port.

The service will be well received by Chester party goers who currently have to spend in excess of £35 to get home from Liverpool as the latest trains leave Liverpool just before midnight.

The previous service on the 500 and 501 buses, which ran from Liverpool to Hamilton Square and New Brighton was withdrawn in April.

It came less than a year after Arriva scrapped its own weekend cross-river night services, saying they were too costly to run.

Stagecoach said it will decide on the back of the trial whether to establish the weekend service on a permanent basis.

In a letter the firm’s operations director Rob Jones said: “Clearly a commercial service 7 nights a week would not be a viable proposal, but but such service at weekends could work.”

“I really hope this can be seen as a positive step, and allow both our current customers and those experiencing the night time economy, a great value way of travelling home.”

He said the service would observe the same “normal stopping places” as the daytime 1 route.

The 500 and 501 buses were run by Ace Travel until the company went into liquidation on March 1. The route was then subsidised by Merseytravel and operated by Stagecoach until being withdrawn on April 18.

Merseytravel said there were fewer than four people per service during the week and fewer than six at weekends.

Will you use the bus service? What do you think of the its reintroduction? Let us know in the comments below