Bus service improvements for Woodingdean

Brighton and Hove Buses attended Woodingdean's Community Conference on Saturday (October 10) to report on service improvements to routes 2 and 22

A public consultation in March showed most residents did not want any changes to be implemented - but instead wanted service reliability to be improved significantly.

As a result - in addition to operational actions to improve service reliability - the bus company has invested £600,000 a year to provide an additional bus to service 2, giving more running time and maintaining the existing 20 peak-time frequency more reliably, along with an additional two buses to service 22, improving frequency to every 15 minutes.

Andrew Boag, chair of Brighton Area Buswatch, which represents local bus-users, said: "We worked with Brighton and Hove Buses on suggested improvements and are pleased that there is now a significant improvement to both the 2 and 22 services.

"The more frequent service on the 22 coupled with improved reliability should make it much more attractive to bus users in Woodingdean. The bus company has honoured the commitment made to local residents earlier in the year when the service was poor and generating a lot of complaints. This is an excellent outcome".

Patrick Warner, the bus company's business development manager, said: "We paid particular attention to how our controllers respond when our buses experience multiple instances of severe congestion and roadworks throughout the city and, as a result, it is extremely rare now that a bus will ever be turned short or fail to complete its journey into Woodingdean."