Further to my meeting with National Express Dundee earlier this week, the bus company has kindly given me their press release being issued today about the bus service changes it is introducing from 7th November.I paste below the relevant parts of this to the West End area :
Service changes from Sunday 7 November:
Service 5a / 5b: Broughty Ferry to Ninewells Hospital
• Significant changes have been made to the timetable to build a more reliable and punctual service. It will also be renumbered as 5 to create a simpler network
• It will provide an improved frequency along Perth Road, with a bus every 15 minutes.
Service 25 / 26: Broughty Ferry to Ninewells Hospital (northern circular)
• Will operate in an anti-clockwise direction around Barnhill and it has also been simplified to become the 26.
• ... Monday to Saturday service operating to/from City Centre and Ninewells Hospital for the residents in the Pentland area of the city.
You can read the full press release by clicking on the headline above or by going to http://tinyurl.com/busNov7.
Much of what has been announced is positive for the West End. The 26 (replacing the 11/12) will operate on a Saturday and also later in the day (until after 6pm, rather than 3pm at present). It will also start earlier in the morning. It is not everything I was looking for - there are no evening services or Sunday service - but I recognise that the 26 is an improvement the on present service.
The Community Spirit Action group for Pentland, Ancrum Cleghorn and Tullideph has campaigned hard for an improvement here and should be congratulated for its efforts on behalf of local people. If the new service is well-used we will hopefully be able to make the case for a Sunday and full evening service in the future
The new 5 service, replacing the 5a and 5b, is to be welcomed. Replacing running near empty buses along Riverside Drive with more on Perth Road is good news - the restoration of a 15 minute service - and it is hoped that these changes will see improved timetable reliability on both the 5 and the 22.
I also welcome the fact that there will be an extra early morning 17 service from the City Centre to Ninewells Hospital for staff starting work around 6am.