Stagecoach set to review bus services to Warwick and Coventry

Stagecoach is set to review its bus services within the Warwick and Stratford districts, which may affect links to Coventry, according to the Leamington Courier.

Under the new proposals, this may result in the discontinuation of the X17 service between Coventry and Stratford. Furthermore, the frequency of buses operating between Coventry and Warwick may also fall from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes.

As a replacement, a new service 17 would be introduced to operate from Warwick to Stratford and West Green Drive. The frequency of buses will be reduced from stopping every 30 minutes to every hour. Last year, the former U17 Sunday bus was replaced by the U1, which now works in conjunction with the U2.

Commenting on the changes, a spokesperson for Warwickshire County Council said: “Stagecoach has informed the council about a number of changes it will be making to commercially-operated bus services in Warwickshire. The changes are based on its own analysis of customer usage.

“As a result we will be looking for new services to cover some of the gaps and reviewing other options within our limited budgets. Whilst we will do our best to minimise the impact of these reductions, we are not able to guarantee that current service levels to all areas will be maintained at this stage.”

A survey conducted by The Boar in June discovered that out of 127 responses, 69.3% of students travel to the University of Warwick by bus, of which 77% use Stagecoach. 74.1% of respondents declared they have been late to a lecture or seminar at least once due to a late bus.

Warwick Students’ Union (SU) President Liam Jackson commented: “We are hoping to meet Stagecoach as soon as possible and will be pushing to ensure that the Students’ Union is part of this review of services.

“We want to ensure students receive good value for money and a quality service. If students have any feedback on their experiences of using the buses, I implore them to get in touch so we can lobby the bus operators to make the changes that students deserve.

In a statement, Stagecoach has announced that these changes will begin in 5 January 2019. They said: “In September Stagecoach began a process of reviewing its entire bus network across the Midlands.

“Over this period detailed analysis has taken place to review passenger numbers on each route and ways of tackling services which are not commercially viable.

“Following detailed consultation with Warwickshire County Council over the last few months Stagecoach is now in a position to reveal the changes which will come into effect on the 5th January 2019.”

“Some services will be retendered by Warwickshire County Council and hopefully they will be able to publish the outcome of these in the near future,” they concluded, and revealed the changes to be made to services X17, X18, and more.

The X17 service will be changed to run between Coventry and Warwick only. It will be changed to a frequency of every 20 minutes from Mondays to Saturdays, while the Warwick to Stratford section will be replaced by a new service 15.

On Sunday, X17 will run half hourly between Coventry, Kenilworth and Leamington, and extend hourly between Leamington and Warwick – via Warwick Hospital and Portobello Bridge – to replace service 18.

The X18 will also undergo minor timetable alterations made to improve reliability. An additional journey will depart from Coventry to Warwick at 7:03am on Mondays to Saturdays. The X18 will also replace the Sunday service 18.

Regarding the U1, minor alterations will be made to early morning journeys on Mondays to Fridays, and additional journeys will be operated on Saturday evenings.