October bus changes

[Vic Blandford-Corp]

East Sussex have announced October changes   Bus Service Changes October 2022 | East Sussex County Council

Overall, it seems patchy. Some areas have very few changes whereas Hastings has some quite major changes to route structure.

[JFO]

I read through most of that and its interesting to see that Stagecoach are giving up Route 254 into Tunbridge Wells, but does this mean that Route 304/305 will get a new operator too?
I wasn't able to open all of the doc's though so maybe there is something I missed.

[DerekJ]

James, whilst East Sussex CC may be arranging replacements for some of these services there will not necessarily be a change of operator - Stagecoach has simply de-registered the existing commercial operation.

Derek J

[Neil Gow]

Yes, Stagecoach withdrawing from 304/305 is confirmed in the Hastings area document. ESCC are seeking a replacement.

[jmp.bu...@gmail.com]

Will the 29 replacement for the 2 still work through to Ashford or is that dependent on what KCC want to do, possibly service from each end and change at Tenterden?

[Neil Gow]

At least with the 29 / 2, Stagecoach have a depot at both ends so can react to whatever happens as a result of the two separate tendors.

If they tender for both the 254 (KCC) and 304/5 (ESCC) and only win the former it could be a lot more interesting - I guess they would then decline to take up the tender. I wonder if they would even bid for the 254 knowing that might happen and with the need to concentrate resources elsewhere.

NG.

P.S. Here's a little thought. If Arriva win the 254 back they could put the "Sussex" back into AKS.

[DBJ]

The majority of route 254 is in East Sussex, and I would expect that it will be tendered as an integral part of the 304/305, if only because of the difficulty of finding a terminating point in Hawkhurst - hence 5 to Sandhurst and 349 to Hawkhurst Moor.

[Neil Gow]

Yes, I realised my error when I travelled on it today in fact, and was even going to post my own correction, but you just beat me too it! I should have remembered that the current pattern to link the 254 to the 304/5 rather than the 349 was inspired by ESCC tendering previously, before Stagecoach then took it commercially when ESCC implemented heavy cuts in funding services in 2015. Now the pendulum's swinging back again. Based on the possibly unrepresentative loadings of the journey I took today it may do well to keep an hourly frequency.