A former Liverpool bus driver is walking 5 bus routes in one day to support foodbanks

A former Arriva bus driver is trekking five bus routes in one day across the region to raise money for local foodbanks.

Neil Atherton, who’s known as the Buswalker, is planning to cover 50 miles on routes between Southport, Bootle, Green Lane, St Helens, Speke and Runcorn in the New Year.

The dad-of-one will also have an extra companion for his challenge – a specially-made trolley designed to look like a double decker that he’ll be collecting food and cash donations in along the way.

This latest walk will be Neil’s fourth bus route challenge and he’s already raised £20,000 for the Trussell Trust.

He did his first one in 2020 after being moved to see so many families relying on foodbanks.

He said:

“In lockdown I watched a documentary on TV about kids in Bradford who didn’t get fed when the schools were closed because they couldn’t get free school meals. As a dad it broke my heart that people wouldn’t have money for food for their kids.

“My Auntie Lily worked in a foodbank and through her I started looking into them more and that’s when I decided I wanted to do something to raise money for foodbanks. 

“I work for Arriva and at the time I was a driver – I’m a bus instructor now – and I worked out of the Runcorn garage. Walking bus routes was just something no one had done before so I thought, I can do that. I knew where I was walking because I was already driving it, and I knew I could walk it because there were footpaths.”

In previous years 45-year-old Neil, who lives in Widnes, has tackled one challenge per year but this time he’s decided to go for three, starting with the five routes in one day in February when foodbanks often struggle for donations.

Once the full year is completed, Neil will be splitting funds raised between local foodbanks in the areas where he’s completed any of the challenges.

“I love a trilogy, so I’ll be doing 50 miles in one day first, then in June I’ll do seven of the Runcorn depot’s bus routes in seven days which totals a huge 150 miles. 

“Finally at Christmas I’m going to do as many Santa Dashes as I can in the region to highlight that not everyone has a John Lewis Christmas. It can be a stressful time for a lot of families who will be faced with the added pressure of the festive period.”

Neil says he’s looking forward to having a trolley mate for the three walks too after Arriva stepped in to help.

“I’ll have a little sidekick for the first time in 2025 because I’ve had a trolley made as a bus that can be a foodbank collector where people can donate, and also be used to collect money.

“Because I’m known as the Buswalker I wanted my own bus to push so I went to Arriva’s head of engineering and asked if the body shop team could make me a bus out of a trolley which they did.

“It’s getting new off-road wheels fitted because the originals are shopping trolley wheels so I couldn’t push those for 50 miles and my mate’s going to put headlights on it as well. I’m buzzing with it! 

“I thought the trolley would help capture more attention because someone would see a strange person pushing a bus trolley down and road and think, what’s he doing with that?!”

You can support Neil here.

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