Coach service comes to stop following loss of concessions
A COACH service taking passengers from Seaford to London is to be withdrawn due to the lack of customers and a cut in grants.
The 025 service from Seaford via Newhaven to London currently leaves once a day but will be scrapped at the beginning of July.
Seaford MP Norman Baker has received a letter from Andrew Cleaves, managing director of National Express, about the changes after the company reviewed its network and found the route was not sustainable after the loss of concessions. Research also showed that on average only one person a day was using the service from the town.
The letter stated, “It is a great shame that we have to take this action as National Express has served the area for a very long time and we realise how much some people rely on our coaches as their only means of transport, so we have not taken this decision lightly.
“I’m sorry that the withdrawal of the coach concessionary grant has necessitated these changes.”
Mr Baker said he felt part of the reason the service was under-used was because of competition from the train service where people could get deals if they bought their tickets in advance.
He added, “It’s always disappointing when a service is withdrawn but it was lightly used. In any case part of the reason was the train service is much better these days between Seaford and London.”
A spokesperson for National Express said, “Since the loss of the coach concession in 2011 over 60s passengers on the Seaford to London service have declined – with an average of one person travelling per day.
“As a result we’ve made the difficult decision to withdraw the service from July 2 as it’s no longer commercially viable.”
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Weather for Eastbourne
Sunday 26 May 2013
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Sunny
Temperature: 6 C to 16 C
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