Page updated 11/11/08

Better bus passes and now Rail Cards too

Concessionary bus passes now allow travel from 9.00am - MORE

Cheaper senior rail cards - MORE

THE ECC BUS TIMETABLE PROBLEMS

Advertising timetables you can't buy (well not here) MORE

What's wrong with the new timetable? MORE

Get our Saffron Walden area timetable (it's much better than the ECC one, and free) DOWNLOAD

THE ECC north Uttlesford Bus Review fiasco

Shuttle bus plans cancelled - MORE

Why its cheaper to use a taxi - MORE

New routes designed for children going to school on Saturdays, in the holidays or the middle of the day - MORE

Concessionary bus passes now allow travel from 9.00am

Holders of bus passes issued by Uttlesford District Counil can mow travel on any bus in starting or ending its journey in Essex from 9.00am Manday to Friday and anytime at weekend. Anywhere else in England the passes work from at least 9.30am although some local authorties allow travel before then.

To get your bus pass you need to live in Uttlesford, be over 60 (you do not have to be retired) or suffer from one of a wide-range of disablities.

Click here for full details and application forms

Senior Rail Cards

Save £5.00 at the Uttlesford District Council

For over 60s, senior rail cards give one-third off almost all rail tickets in the UK (except season tickets and rush-hour jouneys inLondon & the south-east). They normally cost £24.00 for an annual card but Uttlesford residents can get one by calling at theUDC Council Offices in Saffron Walden for only £19.00. Unlike the bus passes, you do not need a passport photo to buy a rail card.

You cannot buy the cheap railcards on line: phone the UDC (01 799 510 510) for more information or simply call at the office during office hours. You can pay by cash or credit card.

Click here for full details of rail cards and cheap rail travel!

NEW BUS TIMETABLE BOOK FOR THE SAFFRON WALDEN DISTRICT - Download

Village timetables are available for all villages affected by the changes

This page last updated:
11-11-2008

ECC ALL ESSEX BUS TIMETABLE November 2008 - Where can you get one?

ECC adverts claimed this book was available from most high St newsagents. Not in our area it isn't. No newsagents stock it: you can get it from the saffron Walden library and Tourist information centre - but the ECC adverts don't tell you that.

Maybe it is best not to buy one; it is full of errors and we think that our online timetable booklet for the Saffron Walden is better: CLICK HERE FOR A FREE DOWNLOAD

Errors relating to Saffron Walden and surrounding villages

Route timetables

Hourly routes:

VL5: timetable was wrong from date of publication (new timetable not used in book)

Citi7 – timetable occupies 5 pages because the great majority of buses included do not run anywhere near Essex. There is no service in Essex on Sunday but Sunday timetables are included.

Regular routes

313 States Sch 08:07 stops at Debden which it does not [ECC has instructed driver not to stop]

445 States buses stop at Littlebury High St:: they do not enter Littlebury High St let alone stop there.

11 Claimed to serve Clavering but the bus was withdrawn from Clavering when the service was “improved” in September 2008

Omitted routes

105 (Stansted Transit Wicken Bonhunt – Stansted) This route is included on Traveline.info

Shopper bus [Community Transport bus service paid for by ECC]

School contract routes which are not listed on Traveline but do in practice accept adult passengers [194, 104, 1209, 112, 1210]

Saffron Walden Town Route map (at back of timetable)

School terminus: routes 302 & 322 omitted from thoe terminating here

17 listed as visiting High St & 29 as terminating, which they do not do when leaving Walden. Boarding point at Saffron Walden Common not shown for outward bound buses.

34 shown as one-way entering Peaslands rd from Thaxted Rd, in fact it travels only in the other direction.

High St: 302 & 322 shown as terminating here which they do not, they never visit the stop.

Places served index

AUDLEY END

There are three places called Audley end: the Railway Station, the village and the stately home. Of these only the station has any bus services. The entry wrongly lists service 11, 118, 322, 417, 418, 419, 445 & 446 as serving Audley End

Probably the most important route for people in the Saffron Walden area is that connecting the town centre and the railway station. Because of this erroneous indexing and the splitting of the Audley End/ saffron Walden service between four timetables it is near impossible to discover the times for this route

DEBDEN

There are two places in essex called Debden: all the routes which serve either have been lumped together even though the places are about 3 miles apart. It is thus impossible to find which servicew serve Debden village near Saffron Walden

Fares & Tickets (page 5-7)

Essex Sunday saver said to be valid on any Sunday bus starting its journey in Essex: the only saffron Walden Sunday route does not accept this ticket

The extremely good value and useful Megarider Tickets valid for journeys on Citi7 and services through Cambridge are not mentioned

VillageLink: service 59 is said to issue and accept VillageLink tickets in the faretable supplied for this route by ECC. “Four Counties Buses 10 journey tickets ( in VillageLink wallet) are to be accepted”!. This route needs adding to the VillageLink network listing.

Finding information (9-10)

There is no mention of the very easy to use Google maps service which provides timetable data and SMS codes fro every stop. This is a much more comprehenive service and quicker to use that traveline.info

A high price (0871) number is provided for traveline at a cost which is claimed to cost (10p a minute plus network extras) but is very expensive to use in practice, especially from a mobile phone. The 01245 454 385 Traveline number is not given although this is much cheaper to use (free on many phone subscription packages)

Traveline.txt – there is no current source of the bus stop codes for this service other than going on line. If you can go on line you do not need the text messaging service. ECC needs to add the SMS codes to its published timetables and bus stop timetables before publicising a service that it is impossible to use.

Public Transport map

A route map is no longer included in the timetable book although a free map is available. Why not provide it witgh the book instead of leaving purchasers of the timetable to order by post or download a map that is difficult to print as it it so big?

The map itself has a huge number of errors for the saffron Walden area: these have been reported many times in the past but nothing done to correct them.

Buses & Coaches

It is implied that the timetables are for buses serving Essex. In fact many of them are coaches which do not accept concessionary bus passes – it is extremely misleading not to distinguish bus & coach routes. Some which might appear to be coaches (eg X30 – in back of book with coaches) are legally buses and accept bus passes.

North Uttlesford Bus Review

301 now meets the trains - but its no go for the Audley End Shuttle

Essex County Council has dropped its plans for a dedicated Saffron Walden/Audley End shuttle service (as predicted by Sustainable Uttlesford, ECC could not find the money). Instead route 301 has been retimed so that the buses actually link with trains to and from London. This will mean that it is possible to use a bus to catch a train hourly through the day between the morning & evening rush hours when there already buses that link with trains.

Sustainable Uttlesford welcomes the new 301 timings but regrets that it will still not be possible to use buses to link with a cheap-day return trip to London.

Why you will need a taxi if you use a cheap-day return to London

This is because National Express no longer allows you to use rush hour trains for the homeward journey and the first evening train allowed for cheap-day return tickets arrives at Audley end after the last bus will have gone. There is an easy (and cost-free) way in which ECC could resolve this problem (by running the last two evening runs of VL5 via Audley End) but so far ECC have declined to consider doing so.

Villages protest as new bus routes are routed to disuade people using them

In theory Littlebury, Elmdon & Chriahall should have been delighted at the outcome of the bus review: upgrading of routes 11 and 445 to proper routes not just school (445) or shopper (11) status. In practice the routes have been spectacularly badly designed with buses gouing miles out of their way to visit schools on non-schooldays and at times in the middle of the day when children are already at school. The Littlebury 445 was supposed to give the village a proper link with Saffron Walden but the bus does not stop in the middle of the the vilage (despite what the timetable says) and takes so long to go via Newport School that it is quicker and cheaper to walkhalh a mile and use the citi7

Losers: Clavering & Arkesden

The Tuesday shopping bus (service 11) has been withdrawn from serving these villages with no replacement. They may also lose the "Shopper bus". The other losers are the many villages whose bus services still fall below the minimum service level

Shopper bus to go?

At the moment, the "Shopper Bus" [a sort of bus which is not advertised on timetables] serves Littlebury, Clavering, Wicken & Langley on Market days but ECC will not say whether this service will continue long after it has been duplicated by the new 11 and 445 routes. It seems almost certain to be withdrawn

Bus withdrawn

Four Counties buses are withdrawing this service because ECC will be putting the pupils that used to use it on their new 11 & 445 services. Unlike the new services, bus 92 used to serve Audley End Station

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