Two passengers ended up paying £5,000 after going on a bus trip.

The pair forked out the money for the last two tickets that were sold on the scrapped Compass Travel 84 bus route between Worthing and Chichester.

The service was dropped because of cuts to West Sussex County Council’s public transport subsidy, and the last bus ran on September 1.

The driver on the final journey, Graham Rowe, told passengers that he was proposing to put the last two tickets issued up for auction on Internet site eBay, with the money being split between two charities, one of which would be St Barnabas House Hospice in Worthing.

However two of the passengers, who wish to remain anonymous, approached the driver and made an immediate offer of £5,000 for the tickets on the condition that the whole donation went to St Barnabas House and Mr Rowe agreed.

Mr Rowe and Compass managing director Chris Chatfield handed the donation over to St Barnabas earlier this month.

Hospice fundraising development manager Andrew Perry said: “We were astounded to hear of the generous donation to St Barnabas House by the anonymous passengers on the final Service 84 and are ever thankful for their contribution.

“This fantastic amount of money allows our nurses and doctors to care for a patient at the hospice for 10 |days, helping to relieve the pain and discomfort caused by their condition or to provide care at the end |of life.”

Mr Chatfield said: “We are delighted that the passengers who so generously wished to support St Barnabas House, chose to do it in such a unique way through Compass.

“It has resulted in something very positive from an otherwise unfortunate situation.”

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