ESSEX County Council has announced plans to spend £670,000 on revamping the outdated electronic signs at bus stops to deliver more information based on the exact position of each bus and the predicted arrival time, rather than just the timetable listings.
Prior to the upgrade the system will be removed and from December 22 displays stopped showing information.
Chronicle reader Les Kettle, 75, of Lynmouth Avenue in Old Moulsham penned this poem about the changes.
SO I see £670,000 of taxpayers' money is to be spent on installing new signs that can tell us exactly how late our bus is going to be from now on.
Whilst the move should be congratulated – the current signs only show you the actual timetable so you have no idea if your bus is going to be late – I can't help but feel a little cheated still.
Is it really worth all that money, when our buses are, in my opinion, the worst they've ever been?
To hell with the timetables, they mean nothing. If a bus is scheduled to arrive at say, 7.52am, you can bet that it won't turn up until at least 8.20am on three or four days a week, usually making you late for work!
What's even more frustrating is when you leave early just in case, and before I cross the road, I see my bus whizz past me five minutes before its scheduled time!
Why don't they stop and wait to follow the timetables that its customers rely on? What's the point of having them in the first place if they're going to be ignored? Or perhaps that early bus that I talked of just now, was, in fact, late.
My point is… should Essex County Council really be spending that money, even if it's going to save them money in the long run? I understand they subsidise many services in rural areas to keep them going for the benefit of the people, even though there probably aren't enough customers to make them profitable.
So couldn't our money be better spent working with the bus company, in my case First, to discuss ways of improving the service?
There are always letters criticising First on these pages of your fine newspaper, but no one from First can ever be bothered to write back.
I think that couldn't-care-less attitude is exactly the same attitude First has with ensuring its buses are on time.
Having said that, perhaps the county council could also think about spending some more money on the roads in and around Chelmsford to help keep the traffic moving, and in turn help the buses be on time.
I refer to last week's letters about the chaos in and around Springfield Road, where the John Lewis development is planned.
I wholeheartedly concur that action needs to be taken now, before the, town, sorry city, comes to a complete standstill.
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