Absolutely stunned the 66 will no longer go around Martlesham Heath, surely the beginning of the end for the service in it's current format
Must admit I was surprised at how drastic these cuts are; leaving some estates unserved that have had EC/First buses for decades... doubt SCC are happy considering they are already consulting on further cuts to bus subsidies too making any replacements unlikely/impossible.
The 66 is pretty quiet around Martlesham Heath although a reduction to every 30 minutes would have sufficed (although this doesn’t work with the 20 min frequency).
Stowmarket whilst greatly improving journey times sees the removal of all services around housing schemes in Needham Market and parts of Stowmarket... they tried this before a few years ago but bowed down to pressure from locals and re-introduced the links.
Rendlesham also loses the Park & Ride extension so down to 3-4 buses a day; at least Framlingham gains a shopper service!
The changes they made to Felixstowe’s last year have obviously been successful as these see no changes this time round.
Looking at the timetables they seem to be saving a bus each from the 64, 66, 68, 88/89 and 800... hopefully they’ll be able to keep hold of the spare enviro 300’s!
Meanwhile they’ve gained lucrative Suffolk One college contracts SO1/2/3 resulting in Volvo B7TL 32651 transferring from Essex. They also won the contract from IBC to provide buses/drivers for the Ed Sheeran concert Park & Rides for 4 days... so some nice little earners there!
She had been written off and deemed “not worth repairing” unfortunately and will be going for scrap very soon. This also means that with the transfer of 66328 to Great Yarmouth and a few more Norwich vehicles off the road there is a notable vehicle shortage in Norwich. Several vehicles are also in dire condition, with Turquoise Volvos on the verge of collapsing from overuse and aggressive driving needed for the 13.
