Aberdeen

First Information Bus Goes to Town

City bus operator First in Aberdeen is hosting a special bus information day in the city centre tomorrow (Thursday 2 July) to provide passengers with information and timetables regarding the service changes that will be introduced across Firsts network later this month.

The changes " designed to better match supply with demand and improve reliability on affected services " will be introduced from Monday 13 July. And to ensure passengers know exactly how they will be affected, the special information roadshow will take place outside the St Nicholas Shopping Centre between 9.30am and 6.30pm.

New timetables will be readily available and directors from the company will be in attendance throughout the day, giving customers the opportunity to speak directly to those in charge.

Many services will not be affected by the July changes, including services 1, 2, 5, 13/13A, 14/14A, 19, 25, and 27. Other routes (services 3, 12, 17, 21 and 23) will see their weekday off-peak (c. 9am until 3.45pm) and Saturday frequencies changed from every ten to every twelve minutes to reflect the drop in demand at these times, while continuing to provide a high frequency service with five buses per hour.

Service 9 " which is predominately used by students " will be withdrawn during the summer holidays to reflect the dramatic drop in the numbers of passengers outwith the academic year. Alternative services will be readily available. Service 9 will also be withdrawn in the evenings during the academic year, with the last bus leaving the city centre around 6pm; however, alternative services will be available on the Red Line (services 1 and 2), which operates every 15/20 minutes between 6pm and 8pm and then half-hourly until around 11.30pm.

From Tuesday 14 July, service 20 will operate every 30 minutes, Monday to Friday, until around 8pm in the evening. Late night services will also be available on Fridays and Saturdays (there will be no Saturday daytime service). This will continue until the full service resumes on 13 September

Due to a low level of passenger demand, the route of service 16 will be revised between 6.15am and 9am on Saturday mornings only to operate along the current Sunday route (Craigton Road to Countesswells Road then right along Countesswells Road).

Service 24 " which provides four journeys per day between Broad Street and Culter Village but is very poorly used " will be withdrawn from operation from the July implementation date. This service has seen consistently low levels of patronage for a number of years. There are alternative services available for the majority of passengers who currently use this service and Aberdeen City Council has issued a competitive tender for the continuation of a socially-necessary service for those without alternatives.

The final planned changes are for service 40 " the Park & Ride service. There will be no changes to services on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; however late evening services on Thursdays (between around 6pm and 9pm) will be withdrawn to reflect the drop in demand and the Saturday frequency will be amended from every ten minutes to every fifteen minutes, providing four buses per hour.

Duncan Cameron, Operations Director of First in Aberdeen said: "These changes are designed to ensure that we make the best use possible of the resources we have and deploy them across the city for the maximum benefit of our passengers. From July, we will be able to better match supply with demand " making sure we allocate resources where they will be best used " and improve reliability to ensure we continue to offer high-quality bus services across our network.

"While many services are completely unaffected by the service revisions, it is vital that our passengers know exactly how they will be affected by these changes, so we will be available at the St Nicholas Shopping Centre all day tomorrow to provide information, timetables and for general chats with our customers about our services.

"We are looking forward to meeting as many of our customers as possible at the roadshow and showing them just how easy it is to get around Aberdeen by bus.'