A good start for revamped community transport system

Different areas of coverage for Suffolk Community Transport

It is now four months since Suffolk Community Transport was reorganised and relaunched.  My colleague, Jessica Fleming, who has special responsibility for the initiative, tells me that all is going well.  The service, which is supported by the County Council, seeks to help people without access to regular public transport.

It is hoped to continually improve what is offered, and the next step is to use funds released by vehicle sales to improve connectivity with bus and train services.

To find out what is available in our area you should take a look at the website HERE.

If you have ever been attracted to the idea of driving a bus you could become a volunteer driver.
These are always in demand and there is now a webpage giving full information on what is required HERE .

If you have any problems or issues connected with the Community Transport service, please get in touch with me and I will pass your concerns and comments on to Jessica.

No escape on the 09.18 from Marks Tey

In the October newsletter that I receive every month summarising what has been going on at the County Council, I notice that there is an item about the Suffolk Rail Conference that took place earlier this week.

High on the agenda apparently was the issue of improving rail infrastructure (track capacity, signals etc.) in order to support the promised new rolling stock that is to be provided by Abelio Greater Anglia as part of the new rail franchise that the company, somewhat surprisingly, won in August.

Recent experience suggests that some new rolling stock is certainly needed!  I went down to London yesterday, taking the first possible ‘cheap day return’ train from Sudbury to Liverpool Street.  We all changed at Marks Tey onto the  main London line, and  all went well until we got to Chelmsford.  Then the train went quiet and there followed an ominously long wait.  We were eventually told that the train was going to terminate in Chelmsford owing to a ‘train fault’.

We waited for about half an hour and then piled on to the next London bound train which was something of a squeeze.  The new driver then informed us about the nature of the ‘fault’.  Apparently an unfortunate customer had got stuck in the lavatory on the train and had pulled the communication cord.  It seemed that releasing him or her had defeated the railway staff and it had been decided to cancel the service while assistance from elsewhere was sought.

The astonishingly cheerful group of passengers with whom I found myself on the later train were generally of the opinion that a passenger stuck in the loo was a much better excuse  than the usual autumnal bleat about ‘leaves on the line’.

No HGV's in Verona!

View of Verona, an HGV free zone

We have just come back from a short break in northern Italy, visiting the beautiful cities of Verona, Vicenza and Padua.   It will, I am sure come as no surprise to readers that in the historic centres of these lovely places there was no sign of the heavy goods vehicles that blight our mediaeval towns here in Suffolk.

Illustrated below is the largest van that we saw delivering groceries in the historic centre of Verona. Most delivery vehicles were smaller.  It is clear that the fragile built environment of the city is protected by rules that insist that goods are decanted into smaller vans before they are delivered to the town centre.

When I try to argue the case for a similar system here in the UK, I am told that it would be 'bad for business'.   But here was no sign that business in Verona is being in any way adversely affected.  Indeed, it is clear that government. both local and national, in Italy has taken on board the fact that if historical heritage is not preserved, then their tourist dependent economy will suffer.

We really do need to think again about how we cope with the increasingly large vehicles on our own roads, and can take some hints from the Italians.

New community transport plans, how to find out more.

Suffolk’s new community transport arrangements will start on June 13^th.    

 These services provide a lifeline for those people, mainly living in rural areas, who do not have access to a car or public transport.

The services have recently undergone an extensive review and reorganisation which is aimed at providing a more efficient and responsive service.   Full details are available on the Suffolk Onboard website HERE..

A series of information events are being held across the county where residents can find out more.

The Babergh area event will be held on Friday 27^th May in the Dining Room at Hadleigh Town Hall between 10.30 a.m. and 11.30 a.m.  Our area will be served by a combination of Hadleigh Community Transport and Sudbury based Go Start.

Trial by Train

'Sudbury Flyer' waiting at Marks Tey

Our train service to and from London seems to be getting worse and worse. Returning from Liverpool Street last week I sat outside Stratford station for half an hour while signal problems were sorted out.  I was lucky because the Sudbury Flyer was held up until the London train arrived, and so I was not as late as I might have been. I suspect however that this meant that others were inconvenienced.

In November we suffered the total suspension of services (and their replacement with an unreliable and spasmodic bus service) between Sudbury and Marks Tey for over a week.  Apparently this chaos was due to damage to the track and to trains caused by autumn leaves on the line!  Those in the know believe that the train operator made no attempt to pre-empt this problem by using special equipment designed to clear the leaves.  In addition much of this can be avoided if trees close to the line are cut back and/or removed as part of general maintenance. Clearly this was not done.

At the council meeting last Thursday a motion was debated drawing attention to this state of affairs.  This was proposed by Guy McGregor and seconded by Graham Newman, both of whom know a huge amount about our railways.  Stating that the withdrawal of services in Suffolk last month was unacceptable, (the lines affected included trains between Ipswich and Felixstowe and Ipswich and Peterborough as well as the Sudbury line) they called for a Government inquiry into the situation and also for assurances that the problem would not recur.

During the debate I learned that rail passengers in Suffolk are getting a particularly raw deal.  Last month we experienced 106 train cancellations in one day due to ‘leaf damage’.  This compares with just 12 cancellations on South West Rail, for example, where there is far more track and far more trees too!

Our train operator, Abelio, seems to be a total disaster.  Apparently the company does not maintain the rolling stock properly, and do not invest in their business either.   I seem to remember that one of the reasons that they won the franchise in the first place was their promise of nice shiny new trains but these have simply not materialised.

The franchise is up for renewal in the next year or so.  Abelio it seems were intending to bid for a further term in partnership with Stagecoach.  Recently we heard that Stagecoach have withdrawn from the deal, a move which may reflect Abelio’s recent shortcomings.   Given the anger generated by their recent performance I would have thought that the likelihood of Abelio winning the bid for the next contract is not high.

Book Sale in Elmsett

Crawford and Angela Allen with some of the 1500 books

The lure of over 1500 books for sale drew me down to Elmsett Village Hall on Saturday morning.

I am pleased to say that I managed to take away fewer books than I contributed, but it was a close run thing!

The two day event was in aid of the Church, with refreshment sales on Saturday supporting the village hall.  I met a number of residents from whom I was interested to hear about the 'non connecting' bus service to Ipswich.

I will be raising this with the Council, but am not sure to what extent we can interfere with a commercial service.  However it seems a bit daft that the morning bus from Elmsett arrives in Hadleigh just after the one to Ipswich leaves, a guarantee that few people will use the service I would have thought.

Bus Route 112

I have had some information about the Bus Service 112 which makes a return journey every Tuesday and Thursday from Hadleigh, through Kersey, Semer, Bildeston, Chelsworth, Monks Eleigh, Brent Eleigh, Milden, Little Waldingfield, Great Waldingfield and finishing in Sudbury.  This is a service that is sponsored by Suffolk County Council.

Concerns had been expressed that this service was to be discontinued.  In response to a request for information the following comments have been recieved:
The 112 bus service which operates on Tuesday and Thursday was initially contracted for one year and I can confirm that we have recently extended the contract with Suffolk Norse for a further period securing the service until May 2016. Whilst the patronage has been variable the overall performance of the contract is such that we were happy to extend the contract. We do not plan to change the timetable or days of operation.

In addition the available budget allocated for passenger transport has remained virtually unchanged. Although this does mean that the department has to absorb any inflationary pressures the work being undertaken elsewhere in the county means that we are confident that (barring any major changes) no service reductions will be necessary.

This is good news, but one thing that residents should note is the comment that 'patronage has been variable'.  When considering a trip to Sudbury do think about taking the bus!  This could be a real use it or lose it situation bearing in mind the need to make continuing 'savings' from County Council budgets.

Winter gritting

Any day now I expect some commentators will be telling us that 2015 is, so far, ‘the warmest year on record’.  Indeed, on the whole, this winter has not been too bad so far, so it would be better to get this message of doom out quickly before temperatures fall.

It may surprise readers to learn that so far this winter Suffolk County Council’s fleet of road-gritters have been out and about some 26 times on the 1225 miles of road in Suffolk that are ‘priority 1 treatment routes’, and 12 times on the 845 miles of ‘priority 2 treatment routes’ (additional roads which are treated when it is forecast to freeze after 9 a.m.).  The 34 Priority 1 routes take some two and a half hours to complete.

This year, thanks to the contract with Keir MG, nine new Econ gritters have been purchased to replace ageing ones in the fleet, and a further 29 have been upgraded.  This capital expenditure would not have been possible without the financial advantages brought by the new contract.

It is fair to say that some aspects of the contract have not proved too successful so far, and  urgent action is being taken to put this right.  It does seem however that Suffolk Highways’s preparedness for winter, warmer than average or not, is better than it has been for some years.