A transport of delight?

A little while ago Little Waldingfield lost its regular bus service.  After a few weeks the situation was relieved to a small extent by the 112 service, which only goes on Saturdays, but which is better than nothing I suppose.

Now there is news of a further service starting on April 16th. This, the 112 and 112A will run at very limited times on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  The 112 goes from Hadleigh to Sudbury, taking in Great Waldingfield, Little Waldingfield, Brent Eleigh, Monks Eleigh and Semer, 112A starts in Chelsworth and travels through all the villages above, apart from Semer, to Sudbury.  I can provide a timetable if people wish, just send me an e mail to antillj@btinternet.com.  I am surprised that this has not been better publicised by the County Council, which is, I understand, running the service on a ‘pilot’ basis.

Closer examination of the timetable shows that the timings of the buses are far from perfect, and therefore it is a little questionable as to whether demand will prove to be high.  For a start the service only operates during the school term time.  Recently an Acton resident revealed that the school bus, and its driver, sits idly in Sudbury between school start and finishing times.  It is possible that this jolted the conscience of the powers that be at the County who have put on the service to meet this criticism.

At least one resident from Little Waldingfield is very unimpressed, calling the new service a waste of public money.  In addition to the fact there are no buses in school holidays, he points out that the timetable is such that some of the buses will get you to Sudbury but will not get you back again.  Also the time in Sudbury for shopping etc. is very limited, and making connections for buses further afield quite out of the question.  However, as far as spending time in Sudbury is concerned, I suppose that getting a taxi home from town is still cheaper than taking a taxi both ways.

Such a skeleton service clearly cannot replace the need for an on demand community transport service in the area.  In this connection Go Start, which is stepping up the level of its service shortly, does actually cover Little Waldingfield, but some of the other villages along the route fall outside its range.