Councillor Steve Delaney has  written to Andrew Jarvis, Stagecoach’s Managing Director, inviting him to divert the X17 into the Park & Ride site at Kingswells in the aftermath of FirstAberdeen’s decision to downgrade the current Park & Ride service to a hospital shuttle bus service. In his letter to Mr Jarvis he said that this  “creates opportunities for Stagecoach to pick up on a number of Aberdeen routes, and specifically in Kingswells due to the location of the Park & Ride facility”. Referring to the current 14/15 service (soon to be No11), Steve said, ” people are sick and tired of the poor service on offer from FirstAberdeen”.

FirstAberdeen recently announced the current Park & Ride service is to terminate at ARI rather than Bridge of Don. As a commuter service it serves no purpose for people living in Aberdeenshire wishing to leave their car on the outskirts and use the bus to get to work in the City Centre. In addition, this service is moving to a 30 minute frequency (from 15 minutes at present) reducing its usefulness even further.

Steve said, “There are clear opportunities to improve public transport to Kingwells when the first phase of the Prime Four Business Park opens next year. What we do not want to see is the majority of employees driving to work due to the dire bus services available in our area. There was potential for the Park & Ride to carry passengers in both directions during peak times, had a decent frequency been maintained. First’s changes to the Park & Ride service flies in the face of reason as we are trying to encourage people to use public transport”.

Steve suggested in his letter there will be an unmet demand for the passengers who currently use the Park & Ride service to the City Centre. He felt that catering for these people by bringing the X17 into the Park & Ride site had the potential to build up a customer base of ordinary Kingswells residents, who are currently denied both choice and a decent frequent bus service.