I was at the meeting yesterday with Alan Pilbeam, the managing director of First Eastern Counties, pleading the case for some sort of service to replace the Route 66. We didn’t expect much, we didn’t get much. Hopefully someone from First Eastern Counties will be talking to the Wherstead Road residents soon. It would also be nice if we got Suffolk County Council to be involved, but alas I’m not the County Councillor. Anyway there were a couple of interesting facts to come out of this:
1. The Route 66 on Wherstead Road was axed almost as much for punctuality as it was on the grounds of cost. This was not something that was very clear at the time.
2. The Managing Director of First had this to say on Ipswich Buses being privatised – “First Group are a professional operation” and about Wherstead Road, “their involvement has got a good chance of sorting out this problem.” No doubt we won’t be able to get the message round Wherstead Road, but simply put a partnership with Go Ahead could actually get them a half decent bus service.
3. There were no councillors there. Bryony Rudkin is understandable, after all she’s recovering from jet lag, and she’d have a problem finding Austin Street. Phil Smart is less obvious, he doesn’t live close to the Bridge Ward Social club but he is a transport geek (I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me saying that). As for Jim Powell, I was walking on the other side of Austin Street as I was going in to the Bridge Ward Social Club as he was going towards Vernon Street, we even waved at one another.
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