Essex

First East England Invest In Greener Buses

The sea air will be a little bit sweeter this summer, thanks to First East England.

Conforming to European emission standards, the 35-seater buses will provide low-floor access on several important town and village services.

The vehicles are taking up their duties on village link services 3 and 4, connecting Clacton to Harwich, along with services 20, 20A, 22A and 22B " all of which are financially supported by and worked in partnership with Essex County Council.

The environmentally-friendly Enviro 200 buses from Alexander Dennis are equipped with the latest Euro 4 engines, and represent an investment in excess of £400k for the business.

This was originally started with a Rural Bus Grant and has seen passenger numbers consistently increase since 1999, with low-floor Optare buses introduced in 2004. The buses offer more seats and are fully complaint with Disability Discrimination Act.

The service is now being worked on a reducing subsidy basis, as passenger numbers grow, enabling the service to gradually move to a fully commercial service over a period of four years.

MD for First East England, Alan Pilbeam, said: "We remain committed to providing continually improving high-quality bus services across Essex and continued investment in our services allows us to develop more routes, introduce new vehicles and enable more older and disabled people to access important services.

"First East England takes its environmental commitments very seriously, and we are delighted to welcome these greener buses into our family of low floor services. We currently offer low-floor vehicles on a number of services in Clacton and Harwich, and the introduction of these new buses will further reinforce our commitment to providing accessible transport to all who need it."

Nick Blackall, Local Bus Planning Manager at Essex County Council, said: "We welcome the arrival of these new buses which will improve the service that people of Clacton and Harwich receive.'

"Quality Bus Partnerships provide for cooperation between the public and private sector to deliver better bus infrastructure and services to our residents.'