First Essex launches brand new bus service ‘57’ from Beaulieu into Chelmsford from 2nd April

United Kingdom, 2017-Apr-03 — /Travel PR News/ — Local bus operator First Essex is launching a brand new bus service ‘57’ from Beaulieu into Chelmsford from 2nd April. The direct service will provide residents with a fast journey time of less than 20 minutes into Chelmsford city centre and with arrival times coordinated with rail departures, commuters can travel to Liverpool Street station in London, in less than an hour.

Four new ‘high specification’ buses are being introduced onto the service and will be fitted with luxurious e-leather seating, CCTV and Wi-Fi providing customers with free internet access during their journey.  In addition, there is dedicated floor space for a wheelchair and pushchairs.

With a frequency of every 20 minutes Monday to Friday, every 30 minutes on Saturdays and an hourly service on Sundays, the service is expected to be really popular with residents of the new housing development, making the journey by bus a great deal easier than using other forms of transport.

The partnership between local bus company First Essex and the residential developer Countryside is the first of its kind with travellers able to use a ground-breaking mTicketing facility on the service.  Passengers can simply download the First mTicket app which then allows them to buy and renew a ticket using their mobile phone. The passenger then shows a valid ticket stored on their phone to the bus driver when they want to travel.

Trials undertaken by First Bus have shown that this innovation can dramatically reduce boarding times on buses.  Passengers using the app can help make the service more attractive to use, help ease road congestion as passengers embark and disembark and make commuting easier. Trials suggest that journey times on routes could be reduced by 50% if all passengers used the app to buy their tickets.

Steve Leonard, General Manager of First Essex said: “Exciting times are ahead. I am pleased to be announcing a joint investment with our partners at Countryside of £640k in four new buses to the First Essex bus fleet that will start operation on our new ‘Service 57’ serving the Beaulieu development.

“Our mTicket app will also provide many benefits for residents taking advantage of the bus service, as it provides a seamless, no hassle, convenient way to pay for bus travel. Countryside developers have done an excellent job in building the estate and together we can provide an environmentally friendly, convenient, regular, cost effective, travel solution for residents commuting locally and from Chelmsford to London”

“Through the partnership with Countryside, many residents on the new Beaulieu development have signed up to a transport scheme providing them with annual bus tickets to use on the brand new service. The popularity of the service even before it has started operating has been exceptional”.

Countryside and partners L&Q have designed a fantastic new development at Beaulieu and when completed will provide 3,600 new homes and an extensive range of community facilities.

Speaking about the new bus route, Andrew Carrington, Managing Director of Strategic Land at Countryside said: “We are pleased to offer our residents this brand new bus route and we are delighted that First Essex have come up with a fast efficient process to help speed up boarding times along the route.  At Countryside, we are dedicated to making our homes and developments as environmentally friendly as possible and this scheme will help to keep cars off the road in rush hour which in turn will ease emissions on the streets of Chelmsford and reduce congestion. For our home owners, the benefits mean reduced fuel costs to access the town centre or station and of course no parking costs.”

SOURCE: FirstGroup plc

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