More bus service reductions for East Wichel

Thamesdown Transport have revealed that Service 11 to East Wichel will be halved in frequency from 6 January 2013. Compared with the level of service before the withdrawal of Stagecoach service 73 in September this year, the bus service between East Wichel and Swindon town centre will have dropped from 5 buses an hour down to just 2 buses an hour.

From 6 January 2013, Thamesdown bus services will be revised with the present services 11 and 24 being replaced by service 11 and a new service 12. Service 11 will be rerouted between Pinehurst and Greenmeadow to run via Whitworth Road instead of Beech Avenue and Broadway. Services 11 and 12 between them will provide a service every 15 minutes from Evelyn Street bus stop via Old Town, the town centre, Pinehurst and Greenmeadow to the Orbital Centre in Haydon Wick. South of the Pipers roundabout, service 12 will run to the Great Western Hospital, along the route that service 24 takes now. Service 11 will continue to Nationwide Croft campus, Wroughton Park & Ride, and East Wichel as it does now, but only once every 30 minutes. There will be extra buses at peak times to provide at 15 minute interval service, but only as far as Nationwide Croft campus, not to the Park & Ride or East Wichel.

The changes are part of service reductions following the end of developer-subsidies for buses to the Great Western Hospital. But with bus usage from East Wichel slowly increasing as more houses are occupied, the reduction in service here is disappointing.

We thank Thamesdown Transport for providing us with this information, disappointing though it is. Full details of the revised service will be available from them from mid-December.