17th April 2022 - Service Change
First Essex Buses: Service Change
From Sunday 17th April we are making changes to your bus networks across the county.
These changes are in response to the change in our travel habits; people are travelling less often and have less certainty about how many times a day or week they require travel.
These changes are designed to deliver sustainable networks, that are easier to use and continue to provide the ability to travel around the towns and villages across the county on our services.
Some buses will run earlier and later in the day, some more often, some less often and there will be new networks in the Basildon, Chelmsford and Colchester areas.
Buses that connect the local suburbs to the centre of Basildon, Chelmsford and Colchester will be replaced by locally focussed services with simple, regular timetables, simple, easy to use fares starting at £2.50 for an adult and with new, newer, or fully refurbished vehicles being introduced over the coming months with a new red based colour scheme.
The services that we provide to connect other towns and cities to these locations and each other will also start to see new, newer, or fully refurbished vehicles being introduced and will become Essex Bus services in our new exciting green based colour scheme.
We have already simplified the fares in Chelmsford and Colchester and, from the same date (17th April), we will be bringing the same flexible way to pay, for bus travel, by introducing Tap&Cap to Basildon.
Unfortunately, we are having to increase a small number of ticket prices in South Essex. However, we are not increasing any other fares at this time in recognition of the fact we are all paying more for daily essentials.
Fares increases will be necessary in the future as our costs are also increasing but we will try and keep these increases to a minimum.