Stagecoach have announced major changes to bus routes in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud from September, aiming to get more people onto buses in and around the areas with new services and increased frequency of some existing services.
The work is a major step forward in the enhanced partnership between Gloucestershire County Council and bus operators, where the county council has received government funding through the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) and is using it to contribute towards some of these changes.
Highlights of the changes
- Service A (Princess Elizabeth Way) will increase in frequency to every 12 minutes and is extended beyond GCHQ to Arle Court Transport Hub providing an important links to the park and ride facilities and national coach network.
- This will provide a direct route from Princess Elizabeth Way to Arle Court encouraging more journeys to work and will greatly improve connections from west of Cheltenham to Gloucester.
- New service F to Warden Hill and Hatherley will pass near to Cheltenham General Hospital, alongside existing services L and 51.
- Service B (Charlton Kings) will no longer serve Cheltenham General Hospital and will now provide a faster connection between Charlton Kings and Cheltenham Town Centre.
- Service C will see a frequency increase from every 15 minutes to every 12 minutes, it will also be extended to Springfield Community Centre, a location not currently served by public transport.
- The service frequency between Bishops Cleeve – Cheltenham town centre – rail station, will be increased from every 20 minutes to every 10 minutes by introducing service E. alternating with service D.
- Services 97/98 will be rerouted within Hatherley to replace service D and continue to provide links to Cheltenham Spa Rail station.
- Service 94X is unchanged and will continue to provide a fast connection between Gloucester and Cheltenham.
- Service 94 will be split into services 94/95. The new 95 service will provide a link from Bamfurlong Road past Gloucestershire Airport which is not currently served by public transport. Both services will be rerouted to link the three main Gloucestershire University campuses.
- As a result of the service 94/95 changes, service N will no longer operate to the park campus.
- Service 10 will no longer serve the Park university campus resulting in quicker journey times into Cheltenham town centre. Connections between Gloucester – Park campus and Cheltenham town centre will be provided by service 94/95 as mentioned above.
- More journeys will run on service 2/2A giving a frequency of 15 minutes between Gloucester and Upton St Leonards.
- The 64 between Gloucester and Stroud will be increased to run every 30 minutes at peak times with BSIP funding from Gloucester County Council.
- Route 63 will also have a peak time improvement between Gloucester, Stroud and Forest Green.
- Route 67/67A will be improved to run a 30-minute frequency with double decker buses throughout the day.
Cllr. Roger Whyborn, cabinet member for Sustainable Transport and Road Safety said “This is a major step forward in improving bus services in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud and surrounding areas where we expect to increase bus use through better services. A lot of services will be more frequent, especially on the vital artery from Cheltenham town centre to Cheltenham Spa station. And more stops will be reached. We have much more to do across the whole county to improve services and connections, but it’s an important step in the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP).”