Bus Service Consultation on ECC funded bus service 15

Background:

Following the review of local bus services carried out in 2015/16 in which the Council asked bus users for their views on what services they wanted to see, a number of services were changed in April 2016. One of these was service 15 which had operated from Straight Road via Shrub End, Prettygate shops, Scott Drive and Halstead Road Corner to Colchester Mainline Station on a broadly 15 minute frequency. This was changed to operate to Marks Tey Station to allow access from Marks Tey to a number of emerging developments in response to the results of the area review. In order to improve overall efficiency and cost effectiveness, the service was also reduced in frequency so it could be operated half hourly by one bus instead of the two it had at the time.

Proposal:
The Council considered reverting this bus service to its previous route, and therefore providing a broadly ½ hourly service 0525 - 0710 and 1755 - 1940.

Would you like to see the service revert to its previous route?

74% of respondents agreed with proposal
26% of respondents disagreed with proposal

Please see final report for summary of qualitative themed responses

Changes were made to the service to ensure it remained viable and to do so, the new residents in Stanway were provided with a service to enable commuter access to Marks Tey station where Greater Anglia provide a direct, regular train service to both London and Ipswich. Hedingham are looking at widening the service to include areas which have not yet benefitted from a service, thus improving accessibility for a number of residents.

Final Decision

After due consideration, the decision was made that the service should not revert back to its original route until the full potential of the service serving Marks Tey is known.