Community Transport for Nottingham (CT4N), a bus operator serving the East Midlands, has stopped trading after almost 50 years, resulting in the majority of its 76 employees being made redundant. The company, which runs more than 20 local services across Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, announced the news on Friday, citing “significant” financial challenges.
Company to be placed into administration
CT4N said steps were being taken to place the firm formally into administration. Despite the approval of a Company Voluntary Arrangement in October 2025 and “significant efforts” by its management team, the company had been operating in increasingly challenging trading conditions, it said.
A spokesperson for the firm said: “The directors have worked with professional advisers to explore all available options. However, after careful consideration, they have concluded that given the circumstances, the company has no viable alternative but to take steps to cease trading immediately. Unfortunately, as a consequence, the company has had to announce the immediate redundancy of the majority of its staff and steps are being taken to place the company formally into administration.”
Replacement services and impact
Nottingham City Transport (NCT) said it would replace the operator's 18 service and was reviewing options to replace other services. The 18 service between Nottingham, QMC, Beeston Rylands, Beeston, Bramcote and Stapleford will be replaced by NCT from Monday, August 17. This will be an hourly service for the first two weeks, with the full 18, 18A, 18B and 18X timetable commencing on Tuesday, September 1.
Mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward, said that “losing a local bus service is life-changing”. She added: “Some services have already been replaced by other operators, and we are working at pace with them and other local partners to explore every available option to further minimise disruption and keep communities connected wherever possible. I appreciate that for people employed by CT4N in this region, this will be a difficult time, and we will be happy to support people who have lost their jobs by signposting them into EMCCA’s relevant employment and skills programmes. EMCCA will provide updates as soon as further arrangements can be confirmed.”
Full list of affected services
CT4N was founded as 'Nottingham Voluntary Transport' in 1979 to help some of the city's most vulnerable by offering low-cost bus journeys. The affected services are:
Nottingham
- Easylink
- Service 19 to Sherwood via Mapperley and Arnold
- Service 20 Nottingham City Centre to Wollaton Estates via Queens Medical Centre
- Service L2 Nottingham City Centre to Assarts Farm via Queens Medical Centre, Glaisdale Parkway and Nottingham Business Park
- Service L4 Nottingham City Centre to Ainsley Estate, Beechdale and Strelley
- Service L14 Nottingham City Centre to Bulwell via City Hospital and Basford
Nottinghamshire
- Service 18, 18a, 18b and 18x Nottingham City Centre to Stapleford and Wollaton via Beeston and Bramcote (Nottingham City Transport have now stepped in to continue this service)
- Service 66 Sutton Bonington to Loughborough
- Service 300 Lowdham to Newark via Southwell
- Service 510 Beeston to Stapleford via Toton and Attenborough
- Service 511 Stapleford Shopper service
Derbyshire
- Service 29 Long Eaton to Sandiacre via New Sawley
- Derbyshire Connect shopping bus eastern area
- Travel Derbyshire Demand Responsive Transport
