| December 2005 - Bus services
through Wivenhoe are changing in January
First Group issued a press release on 11 November 2005 which began:
“as a result of the continuing problems with traffic congestion between
North Station and the town centre since the removal of bus priorities in
North Hill, First regrets that it is necessary to announce changes to
routes 61, 77 and 78 with effect from 8
January 2006 in order to improve the reliability of these services.” Route 77 is being withdrawn.
Route 61 will no longer run via Rectory Road and Belle Vue Road
when it comes into Wivenhoe, but will be re-routed via The Avenue to
Wivenhoe railway station and the service will increase to every 20
minutes. After the 61 service stops around 7 pm., a 78 remarkably similar
to the current 77 will operate at hourly intervals between the bus station
and Wivenhoe railway station until 11 pm.
During the day, route 78 will terminate at Many passengers will be irritated by the wandering
route of the 61 via Old Heath which adds 8 minutes to the scheduled
journey time from Wivenhoe to The changes will certainly not please everyone. One Wivenhoe resident says: “The net effect is that Wivenhoe will lose a bus every hour, that journey times into town will be increased significantly and that passengers going to the hospital will have to change. There's been no word from First Group whether route 61 will be upgraded to double decker buses, but either way the quality of service is set to reduce.” Wivenhoe Town Mayor, Cllr Tom Roberts, himself an intrepid bus user, is determined to look on the bright side: “These reductions in frequency and increases in journey times are certainly no way to encourage more people to leave their cars at home, but with two 78s, a 74 and three 61s each hour during the working day, Wivenhoe’s connections to Colchester will not be all that bad, as long as the changes enable First to run its services on time. Time will tell, but these changes might even be seen as an improvement. And at least the abysmal service provided in the evenings and on Sundays is not going to get any worse.”
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