News
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More bus service cuts announced Stagecoach is proposing further cuts in services
in the BBC news
report. |
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Members’ Meeting A members’ meeting is planned to be held on
Saturday 29 September. Venue will be top floor Bedford Library, |
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BABUS The second BABUS Annual General Meeting will be
held on |
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25 March 2007 |
Putting Passengers First The government has recognised that deregulation of bus
services has led to significant decline in the bus sector. They have
published the document Putting Passengers
First proposing that new measures will be introduced in a Road Transport Bill to be published this
spring. |
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27 January 2007 |
Crisis in public transport in rural Bedfordshire Many people will now be aware
of the new bus timetables which come into effect on 19 February in the East
Beds area. BABUS is pleased that a new bus route M4 will provide an improved
service between Biggleswade and Bedford. Some intermediate villages will
gain. However, overall all other small towns and villages in East Beds will
suffer a significant deterioration in their bus service. Evening and Sunday
services will be wiped out and many communities will lose their through
service to Bedford. We have read statements
in the press claiming that we should celebrate victory of the “Save our
Buses” campaign. We believe this is inappropriate and premature: there is no
rejoicing at BABUS. The campaign to restore decent level of bus services in
rural Bedfordshire goes on. |
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14 January 2007 |
Crisis in public transport in East Beds The organisers of the
public meetings, Biggleswade & District Pensioners’ Association, have
today issued a statement on the crisis in East
Beds. BABUS hopes that as many people as possible will attend the meeting
being held in Potton next Wednesday. |
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6 January 2007 |
Public Meetings in Langford and Potton Public meetings are being held in
Langford and Potton to discuss the proposed bus service cuts. Details are: 9 January
2006: Langford, Village Hall at 14:30 The
latest information and opinions can be found on the Bulletin Board. |
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21 December 2006 |
Bedfordshire County Council “angry at Stagecoach” A war of
words appears to have broken out between Bedfordshire County Council and
Stagecoach regarding the bus service cuts proposed to happen on 18 February. There
has been a robustly worded County Council Press Release
(pdf file). It
appears that communication between both sides has all but broken down. The County Council has invited all
interested members of the public to communicate their views to them either by
email: businfo@bedscc.gov.uk
or by post: Bus Service Review, IPTU, Bedfordshire County Council, County Hall, Cauldwell Street, Bedford, MK42 9AP. 01234
228337 BABUS
would also suggest you consider joining us as a member so that we can
represent passengers. See Membership
for details. |
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20 December 2006 |
Stagecoach bus service revisions Stagecoach
has announced today major revisions to the rural routes in Bedfordshire.
There will be a new and improved service between Biggleswade and Bedford. The
bad news is that other services may be cut or withdrawn altogether. See here
for the Stagecoach Press Release
(pdf file). |
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20 May 2006 |
First BABUS The first BABUS Annual General
Meeting will be held on Saturday 20 May 2006 at Bunyan Meeting Free Church
Hall, Mill Street, Bedford. Proceedings will commence at 10:00. Amongst other
things there will be elections for the Executive Committee. Members are
invited to offer themselves for election. James Freeman will be guest speaker. |
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17 March 2006 |
Concessionary Travel Permits (Mid and South Beds) Mid Beds District has now provided
the information on 2006 travel passes. |
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15 March 2006 |
Concessionary Travel Permits (Mid and South Beds) Full information on the Mid and South
Beds bus pass scheme is available on the Mid Beds District Council website. Within the next 24 hours
they will be adding a section on the new arrangements applicable from 1
April. It is our understanding that the geographic limits of travel will be
the same after 1 April as now. Note that although this information here is
published by Mid Beds, the South Beds scheme is identical. More information is available for
BABUS members on the Bulletin board. |
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11 March 2006 |
BABUS The first BABUS |
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10 March 2006 |
Correspondence with Mayor of Bedford regarding
concessionary travel. We have had an interchange of
correspondence with Frank Branston, Mayor of Bedford regarding the borough’s
policy on concessionary passes. The full correspondence may be viewed by
BABUS members on the Bulletin board. |
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2 March 2006 |
BABUS liaison with Bedfordshire
County Council Yesterday we had our first meeting
with the manager of the Integrated Passenger Transport Unit at County Hall.
Amongst the matters discussed: 1.
Planning
of infrastructure (eg improvements to bus stops and passenger information
system) 2.
Elstow
Park & Ride and closure of Bedford Park & Dart 3. Stagecoach inter-urban routes plans
and Biggleswade town services It has been agreed that in future
meetings will be held regularly. Feedback will be provided to BABUS members. |
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9 February 2006 |
Stagecoach links to BABUS Stagecoach has today linked their
website to BABUS. The link can be found at the bottom of their Bedford Area
font page. |
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8 February 2006 |
Stagecoach revision of inter-urban
routes (update) Stagecoach has designated the new bus
routes between Hitchin and Bedford “mars”. Full details can be found on their
website. |
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31 January 2006 |
Stagecoach revision of inter-urban
routes (update) We have today received an update from
Stagecoach on the routes from Bedford to
Hitchin. The new services will commence on 6
March and be designated routes M1, M2, M3 and M4. Full details on the bulletin board. |
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26 January 2006 |
Bus Passes (Bedford) Good
news for Bedford concessionary bus passes holders. The borough has reversed
its earlier decision on free travel. Last night’s decision means that from 1
April concessionary pass holders will get free bus travel across the same
geographic area as at present with no time restrictions. The only exception
will be a minor restriction on travel to Milton Keynes. |
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10 January 2006 |
Bedford Park & Dart service to
close The
county council has announced today that the Park & Dart service from
Aspects Leisure Centre will close on 24 February 2006. The reason given is that
government funding has ceased. As BABUS has pointed out before, the service
was doomed as the county council was half-hearted about it and did not
publicise it properly. For example, they failed to put any notices on the
roads near Aspects. Instead they have apparently chosen to kill it off in
favour of the Park & Ride service from Elstow. The fact that the Elstow
service was incorrectly described as “Bedford’s first park & ride scheme”
lends credence to the argument that the county council intended to quietly
close the Park & Dart service and hoped that no one would notice. |
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9 January 2006 |
Stagecoach revision of inter-urban
routes Stagecoach Bedford is planning a
major revamp of their inter-urban bus routes. The first phase will focus on
the routes from Bedford to Hitchin. |
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16 December 2005 |
Following extensive lobbying we have
made some progress at Sandy
Market Square in respect of the siting of the bus stop
and the inadequate bus shelter. |
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2 December 2005 |
East Beds DART After 6 months of operation, East
Beds DART are carrying out a review and are requesting input from the public.
Details of the review can be found on the Bulletin Board. |
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24 November 2005 |
Bus Passes (Mid Beds) Mid Beds District Council had a
meeting of its Executive Committee yesterday to discuss the arrangement for concessionary
bus passes from April 2006. Concessionary Bus pass holders will
be pleased to hear that as from April 2006 the travel scheme will continue to
operate pretty much as it does now, except that there will be no charge. Mid
Beds District will also continue to fund Link-a-Ride and there will be no
cost to the users. Further, whereas at present people registered for
Link-a-Ride are precluded from also having a standard bus pass, the council
is considering abolishing that rule. The council will commit to providing
these facilities at least until April 2007. The situation will be reviewed
next year for the period from April 2007. People who currently hold
concessionary passes (which expire in April 2007) may continue to hold them
until expiry and there will be no need to obtain a fresh pass. The situation is basically the same
for bus pass holders residing in South Bedfordshire District, which is a
partner in the same scheme. |
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23 November 2005 |
Bus Passes (Bedford) The news for North Bedfordshire bus
pass holders is not as good as their Mid Beds neighbours. The proposal from
Bedford is that the council implement just the minimum scheme as directed by
government. This will mean free travel is restricted to be within the council
boundary only and travel to be after 9:30 Monday to Friday. Full fares will
be payable for travel outside the boundary and before 9:30 Monday to Friday.
We understand this proposal is to be put to the Scrutiny Committee on Monday
28 November for consideration. If the proposal goes ahead as currently
framed, it will be a blow to most concessionary pass holders living in North
Bedfordshire area. |
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7 November 2005 |
BABUS Public Launch |