Hourly bus services are to be restored between Helston, Mullion and The Lizard after a second contract was awarded to a new company.

Go Cornwall Bus, a subsidiary of national company Go-Ahead, will begin a new eight-year contract next month that sees revised timetables come into operation from March 29.

Among them is the improved service between Helston - Mullion - The Lizard, currently run as the L1 by First Kernow.

The L1 route will remain, but from March 29 there will also be the additional number 34, with an hourly service, rather than every two hours as at present.

According to online timetables it means buses will leave The Lizard Green from 7.15am, to reach RNAS Culdrose for 8.02am and Helston town centre for 8.15am, Monday to Saturday.

It will also see the return of the late bus, meaning that passengers will be able to catch a bus from Helston after 9pm again.

Currently the last bus to leave Helston town centre is at 8.01pm, with the 10.55pm service scrapped in 2018, when it was run as the number 37 route.

Now, however, it will be possible to catch a bus from Helston town centre back to The Lizard every hour up to 8.38pm and a final bus back from Helston at 10.53pm, Monday to Saturday, with a reduce service on Sundays. 

In more good news, the retained L1 will offer a direct service to Truro from The Lizard.

This will also operate hourly, although not late into the evening.

The route will go from The Lizard to Mullion and then Helston, from where the journey on to Truro will take 45 minutes.

They will start at The Lizard at 7.20am, 8.05am Helston Tesco, and the last bus from The Lizard will be 4.05pm and from Helston Tesco 4.55pm, Monday to Friday.

The last bus from Truro will leave Truro Bus Station at 5.45pm, although the last bus that goes from the Royal Cornwall Hospital will be at 4.22pm.

There will be a reduced service on Saturdays that only operates to and from Truro Bus Station, and no service on Sundays.