Service changes, which will come into effect on Sunday, 1st June, will mean that, due to continuing problems of buses being unable to access some of the roads on the route due to parking issues, Service 8 will offer a direct service through Queens Park Estate, along Ford End Road. The route will run directly to and from Great Denham. Service 8 will also extend to and from Bedford Bus Station via Park Avenue and Bedford Hospital North Wing. Bedford Borough Council have added in several new bus stops along Ford End Road.
Service 7 will operate on a one-way loop around Needwood Road. Buses will serve Rowallan Drive instead of Putnoe Lane to offer a new connection for residents in this area, better meeting customer demand and reducing route overlap with Services 4 and 10. The service will now operate hourly daily.
Service 3 will be extended to Shortstown during the day, replacing the current Service 9, which will now provide an evening service to Shortstown. Service 3 will run every 30 minutes, alongside the 9A and 9B, Monday to Saturday, and hourly on Sundays. This will provide a combined frequency of every 15 minutes to Shortstown at peak times. As a result, Service 9 will now only operate on weekday evenings. Service 5 will now terminate at Norse Road.
Service 51 has very low passenger numbers. Mindful of the needs of Lincroft Academy to have a service until the end of term, and following discussions with Bedford Borough Council, this service will be withdrawn on 27th July, to ensure students have a means of getting to school until the end of term. Stagecoach has been in discussions with Meridian Trust, who run Lincroft, about this service and the challenges faced and earnestly hope that the extended cancellation date gives sufficient time for the Trust to work with the operator and Bedford Borough to devise a sustainable long-term solution for the service. Bedford Borough have engaged positively with Stagecoach to explore options and the operator hopes that, in working with the Trust to do the same, a solution may be found.
Meanwhile, working with Bedford Borough Council, the operator has been asked to update Service 25, so that new, direct links are being introduced between Rushden and Bedford. The 07:45 from Sharnbrook that currently terminates in Oakley is now extended to Bedford. The 08:29 from Stevington to Oakley will no longer operate, and the 09:08 from Carlton to Rushden has been extended to start from Bedford at 08:45.
Darren Roe, Managing Director of Stagecoach East, said: “We only make changes to our services after considerable thought and with the intention of maintaining the viability of our local services for our customers. Issue like bad parking cause significant problems for our loyal customers, because buses cannot get through, and this leads to delays and, ultimately, reduced passenger numbers.
“As Bedford develops, we need to make sure that our services continue to adapt to match where people actually want to travel, and these changes will mean that capacity can be invested in taking people where they actually want to go.”