Suffolk New College Rural transport improvements

Email from Suffolk County Council Councillor Rachel Hood

I received the following email today:

Thank you for your email of 9 November about transport to Suffolk Rural College.

We were only recently made aware of the issues with transport to Suffolk Rural. The transport team have advised me that the only bus service from Ipswich to Suffolk Rural College is the 118 service. The college journeys are part of a regular service throughout the day between Ipswich, Framlingham and Stradbroke.

Initially the transport team had been made aware of delays and capacity problems on the afternoon journey from Suffolk Rural back to Ipswich. They contacted Ipswich Buses about this and were advised that they were providing a vehicle larger than contracted and that no one was being left behind. There were customers standing on the bus as there were not enough seats and although not ideal, this is legal if the overall vehicle capacity is not exceeded. Delays to the bus arriving at Suffolk Rural in the afternoon were caused by a combination of the local rural road network and road works/closures in various locations. Additionally, not enough time had been built into the timetable to account for any of these circumstances and once time is lost it is very difficult to make it back.

I understand that Ipswich Buses and Suffolk Rural have been in communication throughout these problems and looked into alternative solutions such as the possibility of diverting another route that the College procure themselves, but this did not turn out to be a practical solution.

Ipswich Buses will be making changes to the 118 timetable to try and ensure it operates on time in the future; however, due to the complexities of making such changes along with making them logistically possible with their wider network of routes this may take some time. They are hoping for the new timetable to be operational from January 2022.

In the meantime, since 1 November (after the October half-term) Ipswich Buses have been operating a revised 914 service both in the morning and afternoon timetable to provide additional capacity alongside the 118 service and to provide a more reliable timetable.

This is not the service we expect students to be provided with, and we apologise for the inconvenience and distress this may have caused some students and their parents at the start of term and thank them for their patience whilst the issues are resolved.

Best wishes

Rachel

Rachel D.S. Hood, Councillor

Cabinet Member for Education, SEND and Skills

Suffolk County Council

Exning & Newmarket Ward

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