Investment in Bus Service Pays Off

Investing £150,000 in a popular Ipswich bus route is paying off – 22% more passengers are using the service after it increased to six buses an hour.

Services 1 and 3, which operate from Ipswich Town centre and Railway Station to Ravenswood and Ransomes Europark, on the outskirts of Ipswich, have seen a dramatic increase in passenger loadings since the introduction of a new ten minute frequency timetable at the beginning of December 2006.

Thanks to a major cash injection from Ipswich Borough Council of £150,000 acquired from B&Q through the planning process the service has been upgraded and extended to serve new areas of the rapidly growing Ravenswood Industrial Estate, so that the new driving test centre and Makro store are served by a frequent and convenient service.  An additional £80,000 will also be spent on better bus stops and shelters.

Before the latest increase in frequency was made in December passenger numbers were already up 13% on the previous year.  Now the increases are accelerating, with hundreds of extra passengers making use of the services since 3rd December.

Managing Director of Ipswich Buses Malcolm Robson states:-
“This is a fine example of how working in partnership with Local Authorities and developers, in this case B&Q, who have funded the increase in frequency, we can promote further bus travel.

The key to providing services where passengers can turn up and travel is a ten minute frequency which has been achieved now on services 1 and 3 with the assistance of this funding.

As the Ravenswood residential development continues to grow we would expect to see further growth in the number of people using buses from this development”.

Councillor Paul West, Transport Portfolio-holder and non Executive Director of Ipswich Buses said:  “This is excellent news for passengers and fully vindicates our decision to invest £230,000 in service improvements and new bus stops and shelters.  The money came in the form of planning gain from the B&Q store on Ransomes Europark and this shows how joined-up thinking can bring great benefits to the people of Ipswich”.