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Today we received the following press release from Regal Busways
Regal Busways are set to introduce three new bus services from Tuesday 30th August. Two of the new services, numbers 2 and 6 are special shopper services and the third service, the R3, is a special commuter service to Rayleigh rail station, connecting buses with morning and evening London train services.
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The number 2 service will link Southend, Ashingdon, Hockley and Rayleigh to Chelmsford and operates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The service will provide a direct link to Chelmsford for Ashingdon and Hockley residents for the first time.
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The number 6 service will link Southend, Eastwood and Rayleigh to Chelmsford every Tuesday and Thursday.
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The R3 service will inter-work with Regal Busways? existing number 3 service and operates between Rawreth Lane (Asda) and Rayleigh rail station. The services will see the number of journeys between Rawreth Lane (Asda) and Rayleigh rail station in the morning peak increase from 2 to 7 and similarly on the return evening services.
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A special promotional ticket will also be introduced on the R3 service until the end of the year. Daily fares will be just ?1 single, ?2 return or ?10 for a weekly ticket.
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Adrian McGarry, Managing Director of Regal Busways said, ?Using the new R3 service to Rayleigh station rather than the car is an excellent way to make significant savings on station car parking and fuel costs and helps to reduce congestion on the road at peak times. I?m also delighted to offer two new shopper services to Chelmsford, which will open up new journey opportunities for Ashingdon and Hockely residents?.
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For more information about the services visit www.regalbusways.com or call Regal Busways on .
This is not necessarily good news! Just so long as the new buses stopping at “ASDA” either avoid using Priory Chase altogether and stop on Rawreth Lane or are the small mini-bus type of bus. As many of us have stated on this web site Priory Chase is NOT suitable for bus use because of the poor road layout, road markings and the mini roundabout at the junction with Temple Way/Rayleigh Leisure Centre.
Indeed it is good news for some people and not for others.
Councils need to learn not to decide the width of a new road before they know what’s been built on it , and what traffic it will get…
If the residents and shoppers stopped parking on the double yellow lines on priory chase I think we wouldn’t have a problem at all!!!
Resident of temple way 🙂 ps – don’t buy a house without parking if you have car(common sense )
Iain,
Not sure if you are aware, but ASDA, who had responsibility for laying the road when the store was built, put yellow lines on the road to enable their lorries easy access to and from their service yard. They had no legal right to paint those lines. You will note that there are no restricted parking notices along the length of Priory Chase and those lines are not enforceable.
I’m also a Temple Way resident, and personally have no problem with people parking outside their own homes.
Even with the cars parked in the road along Priory Chase there is enough room for cars to pass safely in both directions. The issue is that the road is not suitable for buses, particularly when they have to turn round on the mini-roundabout, and also because they stop with the engine running outside peoples homes.
If the bus was meant to stop in Priory chase, a proper bus stop with lay-by should have been planned, and the roundabout should have been bigger. The decision to stop buses in Priory Chase was made by the bus company, I assume with no reference to the local authorities, after the development was built.
A proper bus stop is provided in Rawreth Lane, but it is obviously deemed to be too far from the shop entrance, and is only suitable for a circular bus route because the bus cannot turn round.
Integrated transport planning is obviously not a strong point for our local authorities – don’t get me started on the Priory Chase “cycle path”. My cat could have done a better job.
ST1, I couldn’t agree more.
Cjav makes an interesting point, if I painted yellow lines outside my house I’m pretty sure RDC would be in touch. What’s so different about ASDA ?
I don’t believe Priory Chase/Temple Way has yet been adopted (although numerous companies have been around making good chipped kerbs etc), so essentially Priory Chase/Temple Way remain private roads. I would like to think that RDC or the Highways Dept at ECC will do something once the adoption of the roads takes place, but I won’t be holding my breath!
You are right Cjav, the roads haven’t been adopted yet (though I think it will be soon).
I believe that back at the time of their planning appeal, Asda offered to pay the County Council the legal costs of establishing parking restrictions here. However it will still have to go out for public consultation.