East Anglia Bus Scene

[Simon75]

The Chelmsford P&R saga at Sandon is still going...

 

[hdennis13]

S

Stephensons have been much more active around Cambridge too and won some surprising tenders (61 in St Neots and 5A bar hill to St Ives that I could find). They have also taken one of their tendered routes (112) commercial. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues.

Often see a stephensons single decker heading northbound on the m11 in the morning, so probably based from haverhill depot

 

[TAS]

Some pretty substantial changes to Central Connect services coming as of Sunday 30 August - details here (too long to quote in full). The biggest changes seem to be to the former Hedingham/Chambers services in Suffolk and North Essex. It's a bit hard to evaluate as there are still no timetables available despite it being less than two weeks till the service change (I'd hoped the new ownership might improve marketing, but clearly not yet!).

My initial impression is that it's a bit of a mixed bag. Some specific items of note include:
-The final loss of through Colchester-Bury services. Unclear what arrangements are being made for connections or through ticketing in Sudbury.
-Restoration of Sudbury-Clare-Haverhill through services after an absence of some years.
-Intriguing changes to the routing of Sudbury-Bury services, though these do seem to result in the loss of most Clare-Bury services (will there be connections at Glemsford?).
-Additional Long Melford-Sudbury journeys (more competition for Felix?).
-What feels like a surprising amount of buses for Gt Yeldham (hourly on 89 to Colchester, two-hourly on 87 to Braintree if I've read right?).
-Saturday frequency cut for the Colchester-Bures-Sudbury route. This used to be Chambers main corridor but current operational practice seems to have made it second fiddle - whenever there are roadworks (all too frequent!) buses are diverted via the A134 with no attempt to serve Bures, Wormingford or West Bergholt. In Chambers' days as an independent operator, the timetable said: "The bus will come, even if it's late." And, in my experience, this was always true, barring heavy snowfall. Perhaps the loss of this focus has resulted in passengers voting with their feet?

Probably more to spot in there!

 

[Camb]

Some pretty substantial changes to Central Connect services coming as of Sunday 30 August - details here (too long to quote in full). The biggest changes seem to be to the former Hedingham/Chambers services in Suffolk and North Essex. It's a bit hard to evaluate as there are still no timetables available despite it being less than two weeks till the service change (I'd hoped the new ownership might improve marketing, but clearly not yet!).

My initial impression is that it's a bit of a mixed bag. Some specific items of note include:
-The final loss of through Colchester-Bury services. Unclear what arrangements are being made for connections or through ticketing in Sudbury.
-Restoration of Sudbury-Clare-Haverhill through services after an absence of some years.
-Intriguing changes to the routing of Sudbury-Bury services, though these do seem to result in the loss of most Clare-Bury services (will there be connections at Glemsford?).
-Additional Long Melford-Sudbury journeys (more competition for Felix?).
-What feels like a surprising amount of buses for Gt Yeldham (hourly on 89 to Colchester, two-hourly on 87 to Braintree if I've read right?).
-Saturday frequency cut for the Colchester-Bures-Sudbury route. This used to be Chambers main corridor but current operational practice seems to have made it second fiddle - whenever there are roadworks (all too frequent!) buses are diverted via the A134 with no attempt to serve Bures, Wormingford or West Bergholt. In Chambers' days as an independent operator, the timetable said: "The bus will come, even if it's late." And, in my experience, this was always true, barring heavy snowfall. Perhaps the loss of this focus has resulted in passengers voting with their feet?

Probably more to spot in there!

It is certainly an interesting set of changes, also worth mentioning is the reorganisation of ticketing with new zones encompassing all of the new combined operations: https://www.central-connect.co.uk/faresreview-aug26

 

[robert west]

It is certainly an interesting set of changes, also worth mentioning is the reorganisation of ticketing with new zones encompassing all of the new combined operations: https://www.central-connect.co.uk/faresreview-aug26

First Essex losing the 4 in Harlow. Does that mean no more first essex in harlow

 

[65477]

Regarding the Central Connect Essex changes most of the timetables seem unavailable, even Traveline does not show them.This is part of the Essex BISP programme,

What feels like a surprising amount of buses for Gt Yeldham (hourly on 89 to Colchester, two-hourly on 87 to Braintree if I've read right?)

These routes serve both the Colne Valley Railway and the Zero 2 bus museum which should produce some traffic. They are BISP funded by £100000 with and additional £30000 for a period of free fares.

 

[TAS]

Regarding the Central Connect Essex changes most of the timetables seem unavailable, even Traveline does not show them.This is part of the Essex BISP programme,


These routes serve both the Colne Valley Railway and the Zero 2 bus museum which should produce some traffic. They are BISP funded by £100000 with and additional £30000 for a period of free fares.

Ah, the subsidy explains matters...

All of the Essex services I've checked for so far (admittedly only a few) have timetables on the Travel Essex website (just a shame it's a pain to use!) even though Essex CC hasn't yet published the August bus service changes list. Sadly Suffolk CC appears to be less on the ball, with nothing showing on Suffolk on Board.

 

[Class707SE]

First Essex losing the 4 in Harlow. Does that mean no more first essex in harlow

The Sunday 59 is still First Essex.

On the Central Connect side, I'm quite surprised by some of the changes. Especially when I often see the low passenger numbers on many services.

I guess we'll see how it works out.

 

[markymark2000]

It is certainly an interesting set of changes, also worth mentioning is the reorganisation of ticketing with new zones encompassing all of the new combined operations: https://www.central-connect.co.uk/faresreview-aug26

Long overdue and certainly winners and losers in there (as there always are with any zonal changes). I do welcome the harmonisation though with the cross ticket acceptance over the different depots and operating companies.

Something that I don't fully get though is some of the fare differences. Ipswich Zone and Norwich zone are good examples. Ipswich Zone is less useful but the weekly, monthly and group day prices are higher than Norwich. But the Ad/Ch days are the same price.

I can't work out if there's logic as to how the fares are set for the weekly/monthly because it's not done as 3.5x day ticket rate sort of thing (3.5x day ticket is a number I picked out randomly as an example)

 

[buslad1988]

Ipswich Buses have announced only a minor town change for this September; peaktime adjustment to service 4.

In better news, the 8B will become the 18 (which it always should have been imo) with new evening journeys extending to Claydon. It’s the first time in about 30 years they’ve had buses to those destinations running that late! (Historically an 8A extended from Asda to Claydon at that time).

Two additional 10.8m E200MMC’s have been purchased:
71 - YX17NZA
72 - YX17NVB

They’ve arrived in Falcon Buses livery - which undoubtedly means they’ll be repainted before entry into service… surely not plain white?

 

[Jim Jehosofat]

A few changes to First services in Norfolk from 30 August. Services from Attleborough appear to take an extra 15 minutes to get to Norwich with a tour of Hetherset.
Details here https://www.firstbus.co.uk/norfolk-...s/norfolk-suffolk-service-changes-30th-august

 

[chubs]

I suspect this wouldn't go down very well which is why it hasn't happened, but now tap and go is fully rolled out it's time to end the sale of singles.

Yesterday on a few trips around Norwich all delays were caused by people insisting on buying a single. Most paid by card but once paid by cash, that took a good 3 minutes.

 

[buslad1988]

Another public spat between Central Connect and Essex County Council. This time on BBC Look East last night over school bus fare hikes.

CC putting up the price of an annual pass on one route from £404 to £999! Parents up in arms with ECC saying they haven’t been approached by CC to help with costs with the managing director stating that’s categorically untrue.

Yes costs have risen but to make a rise of over 100% with just a couple of weeks before the start of term seems ridiculous. It also doesn’t do the reputation of private operators any favours.

 

[JKP]

I suspect this wouldn't go down very well which is why it hasn't happened, but now tap and go is fully rolled out it's time to end the sale of singles.

Yesterday on a few trips around Norwich all delays were caused by people insisting on buying a single. Most paid by card but once paid by cash, that took a good 3 minutes.

And what if you cannot tap and go?

 

[chubs]

And what if you cannot tap and go?

Plenty of other cities in Europe have cashless public transport for many years now. I hadn't realised London was the only one to do it here.

It will of course upset the conspiracy theorists and people who incorrectly think cash is king, but we cant appease luddites forever.

Anyone buying a single and paying by card can tap on and off, they just don't want to. There are still some issues where a return is cheaper than two singles and daily capping etc but the bus companies can easily overcome that.

 

[Wawanesa]

Another public spat between Central Connect and Essex County Council. This time on BBC Look East last night over school bus fare hikes.

CC putting up the price of an annual pass on one route from £404 to £999! Parents up in arms with ECC saying they haven’t been approached by CC to help with costs with the managing director stating that’s categorically untrue.

Yes costs have risen but to make a rise of over 100% with just a couple of weeks before the start of term seems ridiculous. It also doesn’t do the reputation of private operators any favours.

I haven't seen the details but, knowing a bit about buses and a bit about finance, I can see how this may have arisen. Central Connect's parent company has bought a number of companies including Hedingham & Chambers which was loss making and in dire need of vehicle upgrades. When you buy a business, you review every part, working out which are the profitable bits, which can be made profitable and which parts are basket cases. It is a fact that school rolls are in general declining and will continue to do so as the UK birth rate is at a fifty year low. A school bus that was profitable with forty children probably won't be if that reduces to 30 because your costs will be unchanged. One side effect of governments in recent decades encouraging parents to choose the "best" schools has been an increase in the size of catchment areas and demand for individual flows may therefore be lower.

As the chief cook and bottle washer at Central Connect is a long standing member of this forum, he can of course give us his own views on the matter.

 

[scrample]

-Saturday frequency cut for the Colchester-Bures-Sudbury route. This used to be Chambers main corridor but current operational practice seems to have made it second fiddle - whenever there are roadworks (all too frequent!) buses are diverted via the A134 with no attempt to serve Bures, Wormingford or West Bergholt. In Chambers' days as an independent operator, the timetable said: "The bus will come, even if it's late." And, in my experience, this was always true, barring heavy snowfall. Perhaps the loss of this focus has resulted in passengers voting with their feet?

Personally I'm disappointed by these cuts but I'm not surprised either. In my experience most of the people who get on the routes towards Colchester get off the bus at Gt Cornard, after Gt Cornard they're mostly empty, especially compared to the buses towards Bury St Edmunds which have had a decent amount of passengers on them. The general population of Sudbury does look more towards Bury for shopping, work, education, healthcare etc. then it does with Colchester.

However I don't think it's a good enough reason to cut the frequency of the Saturday services in half because there is also places like Wormingford where the 44 bus is the only form of public transport available and plus out of the 2 routes for the Sudbury-Colchester service the 44 does tend to be the busier of the 2, although the new 43 (was the 43B, and before that it was the 84 when Chambers was the operator) will also have a 2 hour frequency on a Saturday so at least there is buses towards Colchester from Sudbury hourly on a Saturday.

This isn't the first time Central Connect cut the frequency of a slightly-busy route on a Saturday for a similar reason, they did it with the 82 Roydon-Diss-Norwich. Although it's worth noting that both places (Diss and Sudbury) have routes towards Bury St Edmunds but the Saturday services remain mostly hourly, which means Bury seems to be a popular place at the moment but that's a different conversation for a another time.

I do agree with you on the bus diversions on the Sudbury-Bures-Colchester route, the amount of times the B1508, especially inbetween Gt Cornard and Bures, closes is insane, might as well shut it for good and never reopen it.

 

[greaterangrier]

I don't understand why three different descriptors are used to refer to young persons ticketing. Under 19, 18 and under, Under 20. It's a confusing mess and certainly not simple.

It is also a shame the Seasiders ticket is gone and replaced with a whole Essex ticket. I can't think of any passenger who needs to go between North Essex and South Essex and I can't really tell who this ticket is aimed at. There is now no zonal ticket for if you wish to travel into Colchester from a surrounding town - an incredibly common use for these tickets. Why should I have to pay for the entirety of Essex for a hop into a larger town? I don't think these proposals were drawn up by someone who lives and has used the buses in these areas. It is a shame the £2 bus cap will mask these problems meaning no-one will care until the bus cap is increased or removed. It was also much easier to understand when the boundaries were done by bus route as opposed to having to know the bus stops before and after district or county boundaries to understand the validity of my ticket. I certainly have no clue where Tendring starts and ends.

 

[pjnathanail]

I don't understand why three different descriptors are used to refer to young persons ticketing. Under 19, 18 and under, Under 20. It's a confusing mess and certainly not simple.

It is also a shame the Seasiders ticket is gone and replaced with a whole Essex ticket. I can't think of any passenger who needs to go between North Essex and South Essex and I can't really tell who this ticket is aimed at. There is now no zonal ticket for if you wish to travel into Colchester from a surrounding town - an incredibly common use for these tickets. Why should I have to pay for the entirety of Essex for a hop into a larger town? I don't think these proposals were drawn up by someone who lives and has used the buses in these areas. It is a shame the £2 bus cap will mask these problems meaning no-one will care until the bus cap is increased or removed. It was also much easier to understand when the boundaries were done by bus route as opposed to having to know the bus stops before and after district or county boundaries to understand the validity of my ticket. I certainly have no clue where Tendring starts and ends.

Thank you for the feedback on the fares review. It was a significant piece of work, and very difficult to get right in one go, but the fare cap played a large role in the decisionmaking. We have different ages for young people because different local authorities do different things - in Norfolk we have to be under 20, therefore we follow suit in Suffolk, but in Essex we are under 19. Please feed back anywhere you have seen "18 and under" though, because that is just sloppy copywriting, it should always be "Under 20" or "Under 19" (which is obviously the same as 18 and under!).

In terms of Seasiders, the fare cap is exactly why we removed it. Seasiders day is £7.60, so anybody travelling in to Colchester would buy two capped singles (£6, soon to be £4). Everywhere Essex is £9 for the day, offering great value for people making journeys on our wider network. A £1.40 price increase in the current climate is not wholly unreasonable anyway, even if that had just been the increase to Seasiders, but as you rightly point out, the fare cap changes how these tickets are used, and therefore changes what range we offer, as there is no point offering a ticket that nobody uses.

Google Maps has a very helpful feature saying exactly where geographic regions (e.g. Tendring District) start and finish - we will, in due course, also build zone maps into the website, once Marketing have finished doing the PDF timetables and route maps for the September changes.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Aug 2026 ==

Personally I'm disappointed by these cuts but I'm not surprised either. In my experience most of the people who get on the routes towards Colchester get off the bus at Gt Cornard, after Gt Cornard they're mostly empty, especially compared to the buses towards Bury St Edmunds which have had a decent amount of passengers on them. The general population of Sudbury does look more towards Bury for shopping, work, education, healthcare etc. then it does with Colchester.

However I don't think it's a good enough reason to cut the frequency of the Saturday services in half because there is also places like Wormingford where the 44 bus is the only form of public transport available and plus out of the 2 routes for the Sudbury-Colchester service the 44 does tend to be the busier of the 2, although the new 43 (was the 43B, and before that it was the 84 when Chambers was the operator) will also have a 2 hour frequency on a Saturday so at least there is buses towards Colchester from Sudbury hourly on a Saturday.

This isn't the first time Central Connect cut the frequency of a slightly-busy route on a Saturday for a similar reason, they did it with the 82 Roydon-Diss-Norwich. Although it's worth noting that both places (Diss and Sudbury) have routes towards Bury St Edmunds but the Saturday services remain mostly hourly, which means Bury seems to be a popular place at the moment but that's a different conversation for a another time.

I do agree with you on the bus diversions on the Sudbury-Bures-Colchester route, the amount of times the B1508, especially inbetween Gt Cornard and Bures, closes is insane, might as well shut it for good and never reopen it.

I would encourage everybody to look at the wider picture of this network review, which is an attempt to simplify service patterns, offer improved connectivity on the busiest corridors (e.g. Sudbury to Haverhill as a new link, and buses every 15 minutes between Sudbury and Long Melford), and balance rising costs, available staffing and passenger demand. The Saturday cuts were a deliberate strategy to remove less popular shifts to crew, on a day when fewer drivers want to work, and fewer passengers want to travel, allowing us to be more reliable throughout the week, and more attractive to drivers. In due course maybe more Saturday journeys will return, but we have been able to retain the core Sudbury - Bury and Sudbury - Colchester corridors as hourly on Saturday, albeit via two routes, and the reality is those are the busiest corridors.

It is worth me adding on a personal (and general - not related to the quoted post) note that I tend not to comment in too much detail here, mainly because I would spend my whole life doing so, but I do read the feedback and pass it to the team to act upon. I recognise that our business model and strategy divide opinion (and fully respect everybody's opinions, and their right to hold them), but what I would say is that I am privileged to have a team of highly experienced and committed "bus people" who plan, design, oversee and operate our network, and we are all focused on taking the very challenging operations we have purchased and turning them around, in the face of both sector-specific and wider economic headwinds. It is a difficult job, and most of that team of bus people work seven days a week trying to make improvements to the bus network, which is of course often unseen by those who use or comment on our network. We recognise that where we are today is not the finished product, and much more work continues to be done to deliver improvement; my ask would be that feedback is constructive, as that helps us to grow and improve.

 

[markymark2000]

Please feed back anywhere you have seen "18 and under" though, because that is just sloppy copywriting, it should always be "Under 20" or "Under 19" (which is obviously the same as 18 and under!).

Harlow, Hertford and Tendring zones fares tables on the fares update page. Also in young person fares information https://www.central-connect.co.uk/faresreview-aug26

Purely my opinion but I would say "18 and under" is clearer for customers. Or even better "5-18" which would noting under 5s are free and would match how seemingly a growing number of businesses seem to be displaying prices where it's different prices for each age brackets.

we will, in due course, also build zone maps into the website, once Marketing have finished doing the PDF timetables and route maps for the September changes.

While I've very much criticised the business and goings on previously, I will say that the network maps on the website look good and certainly something that isn't as common in the industry these days so it was very much a welcome improvement. Of course simpler would be better but that's more of a network issue than a map specific issue (300,000 variant per corridor make maps look more complex needlessly).

 

[TAS]

I haven't seen the details but, knowing a bit about buses and a bit about finance, I can see how this may have arisen. Central Connect's parent company has bought a number of companies including Hedingham & Chambers which was loss making and in dire need of vehicle upgrades. When you buy a business, you review every part, working out which are the profitable bits, which can be made profitable and which parts are basket cases. It is a fact that school rolls are in general declining and will continue to do so as the UK birth rate is at a fifty year low. A school bus that was profitable with forty children probably won't be if that reduces to 30 because your costs will be unchanged. One side effect of governments in recent decades encouraging parents to choose the "best" schools has been an increase in the size of catchment areas and demand for individual flows may therefore be lower.

As the chief cook and bottle washer at Central Connect is a long standing member of this forum, he can of course give us his own views on the matter.

I know a bit about the route (907 West Bergholt - Stanway School) in question and - apart from the massive size of the increase - can explain some of the frustration. The primary school in West Bergholt has fed into Stanway for secondary education* for many decades (perhaps as long as Stanway School has existed) and for many years everyone in the village got free travel there. Some years back, Essex CC cut free school travel eligibility (I think so it's based on the nearest school, not the catchment one). About half the village is closer to St Helena School and so lost free travel eligibility. With the coming changes the village postcode lottery is worth £1000 per secondary school aged kid per year, with almost no notice. (EDIT: Worth noting that school admissions criteria are different to travel funding criteria and, as I understand it, no-one from West Bergholt would actually be able to get into St Helena even if they wanted to, owing to not being in the priority admissions area.)

[*For many years, Stanway was a poorly performing school and the Gilberd was higher performing and undersubscribed from its catchment area so many West Bergholt children went there instead. In fact the commercial school service First used to run from West Bergholt to the Gilberd (no. 69) was a double decker (as was the standalone West Bergholt to Norman Way Schools service for those attending the selective, independent and catholic schools in the Lexden Road area - no. 68) and the contracted service to Stanway (no. 17, now 907) was a single decker. This situation changed in the 2000s as Stanway turned around and Highwoods grew meaning that the Gilberd no longer had surplus places. The 69 was withdrawn and the 68 folded into the Chambers route to Norman Way from Long Melford/Sudbury via Bures.]

Looking at the timetable on the Central Connect website I think West Bergholt parents are going to be even more annoyed with the firm - it's not mentioned in the summary but it looks like the 44A to Norman Way is to now run via the normal 44 route in the village, sticking to the B1508, rather than diverting through the village as it has since Chambers merged First's 68 into it.

 

[Wawanesa]

Thanks for your thoughts PJN. Although the cuts to Saturday services are unfortunate, the reality is that the passenger numbers simply aren't there on that day of the week anymore. I am however very pleased to see the reintroduction of a Sudbury - Haverhill service. While it may not make a fortune, it certainly saw 'deckers on it back in the days of H.S. Theobald & Son.

I could write more but I must go now as I'm off to ride on the X43 to Bury.

 

[TAS]

Thanks for your thoughts PJN. Although the cuts to Saturday services are unfortunate, the reality is that the passenger numbers simply aren't there on that day of the week anymore. I am however very pleased to see the reintroduction of a Sudbury - Haverhill service. While it may not make a fortune, it certainly saw 'deckers on it back in the days of H.S. Theobald & Son.

I could write more but I must go now as I'm off to ride on the X43 to Bury.

I accept that viability changes, it's a shame, but it does, but what intrigues me is that routes which apparently ceased to be viable many years ago (e.g. Halstead to Sudbury, Sudbury to Haverhill) have been or are to be reinstated. If the overall trajectory was just cuts to match viability and driver availability, that would make sense, but I'm slightly concerned that the business may be cutting losses on existing services in order to make new and exciting losses elsewhere rather than fixing the basics (though I accept that this is somewhere where companies probably can't win - either they aren't innovative or they're too innovative!). But hopefully I'm wrong and there are good reasons for the situation to have changed. And what I really don't want is for it to fail given the impact that would have on users, employees, the local economy etc. across East Anglia.

Also, the communications effort for changes of this scale has been poor. Why are full timetables still not available for every route five working days out? Why is the 15 minute frequency from Sudbury to Long Melford not mentioned anywhere and no summary timetables for this or other common corridors with multiple routes (Bury-Sudbury, Sudbury-Colchester) have been published? Though this is an industry-wide malaise to be fair...

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Sunday at 09:52 ==

It is worth me adding on a personal (and general - not related to the quoted post) note that I tend not to comment in too much detail here, mainly because I would spend my whole life doing so, but I do read the feedback and pass it to the team to act upon. I recognise that our business model and strategy divide opinion (and fully respect everybody's opinions, and their right to hold them), but what I would say is that I am privileged to have a team of highly experienced and committed "bus people" who plan, design, oversee and operate our network, and we are all focused on taking the very challenging operations we have purchased and turning them around, in the face of both sector-specific and wider economic headwinds. It is a difficult job, and most of that team of bus people work seven days a week trying to make improvements to the bus network, which is of course often unseen by those who use or comment on our network. We recognise that where we are today is not the finished product, and much more work continues to be done to deliver improvement; my ask would be that feedback is constructive, as that helps us to grow and improve.

I just want to add that I do appreciate you posting here, especially as I think I wouldn't if I were in your position (but then I don't think I'd have been brave/mad enough to take on Go-Ahead's East Anglian mess either!). Good luck with sorting everything out!

 

[scrample]

I would encourage everybody to look at the wider picture of this network review, which is an attempt to simplify service patterns, offer improved connectivity on the busiest corridors (e.g. Sudbury to Haverhill as a new link, and buses every 15 minutes between Sudbury and Long Melford), and balance rising costs, available staffing and passenger demand. The Saturday cuts were a deliberate strategy to remove less popular shifts to crew, on a day when fewer drivers want to work, and fewer passengers want to travel, allowing us to be more reliable throughout the week, and more attractive to drivers. In due course maybe more Saturday journeys will return, but we have been able to retain the core Sudbury - Bury and Sudbury - Colchester corridors as hourly on Saturday, albeit via two routes, and the reality is those are the busiest corridors.

Alright cool, thank you for clearing things up around the Saturday cuts as I was confused for the reasoning but it makes a lot more sense now due to costs and everything else you just explained. Sorry if I came off harsh I was just confused and disappointed by the initial decision

 

[Pyromaniac]

Very brave if PJN to view and reply on this forum although appreciated.

I'm not sure how much sway you have PJN, but if you can feedback to ECC that the current setup of the 63/63A in Colchester is of no use - the Mason Road terminus is quite pointless on weekdays (weekends make more sense for leisure travel) but would be better off pointed to Colchester North station for rail connections or the hospital during the week.

 

[Wawanesa]

Another public spat between Central Connect and Essex County Council. This time on BBC Look East last night over school bus fare hikes.

CC putting up the price of an annual pass on one route from £404 to £999! Parents up in arms with ECC saying they haven’t been approached by CC to help with costs with the managing director stating that’s categorically untrue.

Yes costs have risen but to make a rise of over 100% with just a couple of weeks before the start of term seems ridiculous. It also doesn’t do the reputation of private operators any favours.

Central Connect have today posted a statement on their website regarding the issue of Service 907 West Bergholt - Stanway School. As I suspected, it's a problem that they have inherited in that it has been subsided by Essex CC but that the actual amount hasn't increased since 2024 and won't be until 2028. I assume that the conditions of the subsidy mean that Central Connect aren't in a position to just withdraw the service. Central Connect have reduced the size of the fare increase for the moment.

Now that timetables for the revised services in the Sudbury area are available, I realise that Star Cabs Service 18 Clare - Haverhill appears to be continuing despite the extension of Central Connect 41 Sudbury - Clare through to Haverhill so that section is going to be rather over bussed for the moment. Oddly, Bus Times says that the 18 is subsidised by Cambridge despite operating through Suffolk and Essex.

 

[Cesarcollie]

Central Connect have today posted a statement on their website regarding the issue of Service 907 West Bergholt - Stanway School. As I suspected, it's a problem that they have inherited in that it has been subsided by Essex CC but that the actual amount hasn't increased since 2024 and won't be until 2028. I assume that the conditions of the subsidy mean that Central Connect aren't in a position to just withdraw the service. Central Connect have reduced the size of the fare increase for the moment.

Now that timetables for the revised services in the Sudbury area are available, I realise that Star Cabs Service 18 Clare - Haverhill appears to be continuing despite the extension of Central Connect 41 Sudbury - Clare through to Haverhill so that section is going to be rather over bussed for the moment. Oddly, Bus Times says that the 18 is subsidised by Cambridge despite operating through Suffolk and Essex.

No price increase for duration of contract is a standard ECC term. Central Connect would have known that from their previous operations in Essex, and indeed their due diligence on the Go East Anglia purchase. So whilst it’s a challenge, it’s one they were fully aware of and could/should have taken account of in the price paid for the business.

 

[Wawanesa]

This is something I find interesting / weird about council contracts. I worked in a completely different industry and if somebody wanted a fixed price for longer than a year we would just laugh at them. We knew that we would never get any commitment from our suppliers for more than three months so we calculated our selling prices accordingly.

 

[Cesarcollie]

This is something I find interesting / weird about council contracts. I worked in a completely different industry and if somebody wanted a fixed price for longer than a year we would just laugh at them. We knew that we would never get any commitment from our suppliers for more than three months so we calculated our selling prices accordingly.

It doesn’t apply with all authorities. But it is fairly common.