Kingswells/Sheddocksley Councillor Steve Delaney has received an encouraging response from Stagecoach regarding the X17 service. Last month he wrote to Stagecoach inviting them to provide an alternative Park & Ride service following FirstAberdeen’s decision to reduce the frequency of the current service and terminate it at ARI.

In his letter Councillor Delaney said, “FirstAberdeen’s intentions clearly create 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”. He continued, “There will be an unmet demand for the passengers who currently use the Park & Ride service to the City Centre. Catering for these people by bringing perhaps the X17 into the Park & Ride site has the potential to build up a customer base of ordinary Kingswells residents, which could perhaps be further expanded at a future date.”

In his reply, Andrew Jarvis agreed that the new Park & Ride service “will provide a very poor link for Aberdeenshire based commuters”. He fell short of committing to run the X17 into the Park & Ride site, but did say he was interested in “”exploring the possibility”. Steve said, “I warmly welcome Stagecoach’s interest in looking at this in more detail and have requested a meeting with Mr Jarvis to discuss matters further”.

In a very welcome move, Stagecoach has announced that the frequency on the X17 is to be increased to every 10 minutes fro 22nd October 2012. Councillor Delaney said, “For people who are within easy access of the X17 stops on the A944, this service overs three times the frequency of First’s Nos 11 & 41 and will be a great boost to public transport in the area. Now all we need is for decent bus services in the village itself!”