Thanet council leader Cllr Rick Everitt is requesting that bus operator Stagecoach and Kent County Council look again at bus service changes which take effect from today (September 20).
In August it was revealed that a number of routes were under threat of withdrawal or reduction. The 32 service, which was previously earmarked to be withdrawn, will now continue thanks to funding from Kent County Council and the off peak 9 service, which was also to be withdrawn, has been taken on by another bus operator on behalf of KCC. However, KCC said viability for the services will be assessed after six months.
But the 34 route is now curtailed at Westwood Cross and will run just hourly. The 45/45a Broadstairs – Dumpton – Ramsgate – Discovery Park – Sandwich is withdrawn with a replacement service only covering part of the route.
The changes hit areas including Newington and Broadstairs.
Cllr Everitt, who is a Newington ward councillor, says he is unhappy with changes to the 34, which has been replaced by route 44 between Ramsgate and Westwood. There will no longer be a through service to Margate and what is left of the 34 is reduced to an hourly service.
The changes reduce access to the Thanet Health Hub off Westwood Road, while a section of the former route 45 between Ramsgate and Broadstairs via Dumpton has been axed entirely.
Cllr Everitt said: “The reinstatement of a direct service between Ramsgate and Canterbury is good news, especially with the government’s £2 fare cap coming into force in January. This extension is something that Polly Billington MP successfully campaigned for and it has wide public support
“However, it cannot be right that Newington residents are seeing a reduced service through one of our most isolated and deprived communities at the same time. I know that residents in Dane Valley and along the remainder of the 34 route are in a similar position.
“Instead of the half-hourly 34, Newington will now have an hourly service via the new 44 and it won’t go along Stirling Way, which is a long road. Not everyone towards the Newington Road end has a car and some have mobility problems.
“It will be too far for some to walk to catch the Loop on Margate Road or the hourly 44 at St Johns Avenue, where it turns on to the Haine Road. It’s unacceptable.
“We don’t expect half-hourly buses to Canterbury, but I believe Stagecoach could operate a service between Ramsgate and Westwood to run alternately with the 44. It could probably be done with just one vehicle.”
Thanet council has no say on bus services; the county council is the transport authority and receives funding from government for bus subsidy.
Earlier this year, a Freedom of Information request from Nethercourt ward Labour district councillor David Green revealed that KCC bus subsidies were far lower in Thanet than elsewhere in Kent, despite the district being more deprived than others.
“Public transport is a social good and shouldn’t just be determined by profitability,” said Cllr Everitt. “Poor public transport imposes additional costs on those who can least afford it. It affects access to employment, health services and leisure. Newington is not some tiny rural village. It’s bad enough there are no Sunday and evening services on these routes, without these new cuts.”
Stirling Way will continue to be served by school routes 945 and 946.
Bus service changes
45 / 45A Broadstairs – Dumpton – Ramsgate – Discovery Park – Sandwich This service is withdrawn and replaced by service 44 between Ramsgate and Sandwich. The 07:41 current 45 service from Westwood Cross and the 15:40 from Sandwich Tech on school days only will be renumbered 945.
44 Canterbury – Westwood Cross The current Discovery Park journeys running as service 43 will be renumbered 44 and extended to Westwood Cross via Cliffsend, Ramsgate and Newington. The journey will include stops currently on the 45/45A which will no longer run. The new 44 route will go directly through the centre of Newington then via New Haine Road and Sainsbury’s to Westwood Cross.
34 Ramsgate – Margate Rail Station The 34 timetable has been reviewed and will now operate between Margate Cecil Square, Dane Valley and Westwood Cross hourly. The current section of the route between Westwood Cross and Ramsgate will now be covered by the new route 44.
32 Margate – Minnis Bay This service will continue the current timetable and frequency, supported by KCC.
9 / 9X Westwood – Canterbury Another operator will run the off‑peak route 9 service on behalf of KCC. 9X journeys will not change.
8 / 8A / 8X Westwood Cross – Canterbury The 06:53 journey on route 8 / 8X to Canterbury Monday to Friday will be extended to serve Westwood Cross. The 07:26 8A journey to Northdown Park will be revised to terminate at Birchington Rail Station.
944 Cliffsend – Dane Court School Services delayed 15 minutes to better serve Ursuline College.
945 Ramsgate – Sandwich New service replacing the current 45A 07:41 from Westwood Cross and the 15:40 return from Sandwich Tech.
946 Margate – Broadstairs Revised to start at 07:15 and to operate via Newington.
He didn’t kick up a fuss when the 34 service was scrapped in Minnis Bay and Birchington, why now??? Oh I forgot, because Newington are more likely to vote Labour instead of Conservative.
Ah, but we all thought that from a number of your condescending posts, those in Birchington could afford taxis. Not so affluent now?🤣
“… shouldn’t just be determined by profitability…”
The lunacy of someone who has never had to make the difficult choices in running a business or, the personal consequences from bad business decisions.
Obviously has a money tree in his garden.🙄
“shouldn’t just be determined by profitability” says the Council Leader who has increased Thanet’s debt from £20m to £90m since taking over and who has overspent the Council’s budget by almost £10m in the last few years.
If it’s ok, we won’t be taking economics lessons from you comrade.
I see the usual old lags of conservatism bubbling on again.
Right:
If TDC were getting into debt to fund the current account I would agree, but if they are buying houses to reduce homelessness that delivers a greater asset base, reduces housing benefit and brings down the waiting list just a little. You who have houses are ok, what are the homeless to do live under a hedge until the financial limited is better?
The current account is of more concern, but the bin crisis is a partial driver there.
What I want you 3 to do is stand for election and put your ideas above the parapet so they can be shot at by people just like you.I have been there and got the tee shirt, so I know the score.
As for the buses, Sevenoaks receives £4m in bus grant, that is 8 times the amount for Thanet.In fact it is 40% more than Dover,Canterbury,and Thanet combined, so yes he has a point about the 34, and I am sure he also was concerned about MInnis bay etc, but he dies represent Newington.
He “dies” represent Minnis Bay, and everywhere else in Thanet. He’s the TDC leader!
Makes me laugh , first day of the new 44 & 34 and it’s running 15 minutes late , why u may ask il tell u – the 44 turns into the 34 but if it runs late then the 34 that it turns into runs late .
But then also I saw the 44 arrive ontime at Westwood so in reality the 34 should run ontime but wait no , the driver who takes over decides to run it late . Why I don’t know that’s one for manager to answer .
But short of it , cut services , raise fares and still can’t run the service on time . Absolutely diabolical.
It’s the result of having a private company owned by an off-shoot of Deutsche Bank running our buses here.
Throughout the majority of history our transport systems and everything else was privately owned. Watt, Stephenson and Trevethick were not government employees. Nor were Rolls and Royce. History tells us that private capital and that socialist centralised control and redistribution decays everything from within.
Throughout the majority of history our transport systems and everything else was privately owned. Watt, Stephenson and Trevethick were not government employees. Nor were Rolls and Royce. History tells us that private capital builds and that, socialist centralised control and redistribution decays everything from within.
Reply
They’re not raising fares, they’re reducing them (again).
Only on single fares Peter a 28 day ticket went up £9 yesterday . And a 7 day ticket went up £3
Well Harry, Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson passed away 200 years ago, and we have moved on a little since then, such as antiseptic methods during surgery and using effective pain killers, or do you want to return to those Victorian values?
It is not even true that all transport systems started off as private concerns.The tramways in Dover and Thanet were built and run by local authorities, as were many bus operations, so your thesis is full of holes. Private does not mean bad, but often is in today’s wholly profit driven world. Would you like your pension to be adminsted by Capita for example?
George. You’re missing the point. Those who fail to learn the lessons from the mistakes of History….
There are no trams in Dover or Thanet. The four decade old Stagecoach that started with night coaches from Scotland to London is now a behemoth. I use them every day. Any shortcomings in their services are almost wholly accounted for by roadworks or mechanical issues with vehicles.
As to your medical analogies… Surgical spirit and opium were both around 200 years ago. In between, two German layabouts wrote a 38 page treatise on jealousy that sparked a summer of riots across Europe instigated by the spoilt sons of the gentry who could read. During the last century, their disciples oversaw the deaths of more people than everyone you would name a “Fascist” has ever done.
Profit IS the motive for business. Risk is the price the entrepreneur pays… with their own money. Not that which has been extorted by an institutionalised organised crime group. Tony Benn would have told you the same. As would Noam Chomsky.
Bring back the trams!
No Harry, they were using chloroform experimentally with fatal results, and most patients had no pain relief beyond a swig of spirits.Surgery terrified most patients, because the outcomes were painful and so poor.Antiseptic methods were not widely used for some decades and women kept on dieing in child birth as a result.The Tramways died because of a lack of faith, the loss of income from electric power generation, and the beginnings of the pro car lobby.”Trams are too slow and our wheels get caught in the tracks etc”.
Marx and Engels were not layabouuts but described the victoriana economies quite well. Hitler was a layabout and of coursecwe know how ultra conservatism and ethno- nationalism can end. I tend towards John Maynard Keynes who saved capitalism from itself. Profit certainly is a motive for doing something, but it has little to do with service.
Stagecoach is not as it was 40 years ago it is owned by DWS the transport and infrastructure arm of deutsch bank.
You maybe happy with Stagecoach but many are not.
The reason many of us survive into our dosage is not enlightened capitalism, but the installation of drains and clean water systems, which are now being ruined by Macquarie bank through its Southern water subsidiary. Hayek was misinformed and even he changed his mind after writing Roads to Serfdom.Adam Smith abomination monopolies and with good reason once you see how backward, and rundown our bus services are.
If you travel outside of Kent, you will see good practice, whether by enhanced partnership or franchise.
Stop being so doctrinaire and think outside of your shrinking bubble of complacency.
If Stagecoach was running a service similar in outcome to that of London Transport 50 to 60 years ago, I woukd have no issues with them, but they are not. It is a run like a boot fair with second hand vehicles and rundown infrastructure, funded in part by a couldn’t care less county council.
Like I said.
Opium had been around for centuries by AD1800.
Surgical spirit and other substances with antiseptic qualities also existed. These are irrefutable facts.
Marx never worked a day in his life. He scrounged throughout. Engels was a partner in an entrepreneurial textile business. Marx fathered 7 children. You can research their fates for yourself.
Hitler and Mussolini were both wounded Great War veterans. Each of whom created totalitarian parties and states very similar in nature to those of Stalin and Mao. With violent, ignorant revolutionary youth movements.
The authors of Critical Theory – Horkheimer, Adorno & Co. – also never did a day’s wealth creating work in their lives. Just imagined, as Fabians and postmodern Jacobins do, that there can be a kinder Socialism than that created by Lenin. Of course, the word “Communist” only occurs once in The Manifesto. It is “Socialism” that rears its head repeatedly in the body of the text.
Trams were a mistaken imagining. It’s why they died. Simple Supply & Demand in action.
Our bus services are run down for the same reason. Insufficient demand, mainly due to the desire of car ownership. Something that I have never owned or desired. However, that is not the case for the majority. Who have made their democratic choice with their cash!
Our sewerage and drainage systems were all created by the private sector. As are the hygiene and pharmaceutical products you admire.
Socialism is a wasting cancerous imagining.
Over the years bus services have been progressively reduced in Thanet. It used to be possible to travel around the vast majority of Thanet by bus at a frequency of around every 15 minutes. Including from Newington. Living fairly near the new Health Hub we are left with just one bus an hour, the reduced 34 route, to get to Margate or Westwood. Getting to Broadstairs or Ramsgate is a 20 minute walk for a healthy person to the Loop sevice, or taking the 34 to Westwood and changing buses there. This at least doubles any set fare and leads to very long journey times. The ‘sevice’ is not helpful for the elderly or young families who are pretty much left stranded or reliant on kindly neighbours to get to shops in town, hospital or doctor’s appointments for example, if they do not have access to their own transport. No wonder we have gridlock on our roads at certain times of the day. There are plenty of areas in the Thanet diistrict with similar problems. Something needs to be done to improve the situation.
The issue with the 34 is that it is losing in the region of £15K a week. Not my words… the Drivers’. More empty seats hour by hour than occupied ones.
John exactly, the old morning 34 even with school kids doesn’t cover the cost of fuel as one of those buses uses roughly £160 a day in diesel then add drivers wages so roughly £300 each bus a day if that’s 4 buses that’s £1200 now the important bit if each bus only takes £200 a day they are losing £400 a day that’s £2400 in a 6 day week . There is no way that’s viable , as for petition it’s too late as it can take 7 months to make changes to routes and stagecoach won’t change it back now it’s done and confirmed.
John exactly, the old morning 34 even with school kids doesn’t cover the cost of fuel as one of those buses uses roughly £160 a day in diesel then add drivers wages so roughly £300 each bus a day if that’s 4 buses that’s £1200 now the important bit if each bus only takes £200 a day they are losing £400 a day that’s £2400 in a 6 day week . There is no way that’s viable , as for petition it’s too late as it can take 7 months to make changes to routes and stagecoach won’t change it back now it’s done and confirmed.
Bus services should be funded via higher car taxes.
Spoken like a true communist.
Thank you!