Blog

As many students who use the inter-campus bus service know the A259 Chichester/Bognor Road has been a complete nightmare for the last couple of days.

Student Union representatives proposed a route change in the final week of January which was accepted as a possibility by the University estates department but was not initiated straight away. As a result of this a timetable has been published for the next 3 days (Wednesday 3rd – Friday 5th February). We are well aware that this timetable is pretty poor.

Your SU have now stepped in and achieved the following steps to ensure that students get to lectures on time and don’t have too long to wait around before/afterwards:
The following actions will take place as of Monday 8th February (Unless stated otherwise)

•  The Bus will no longer serve Chichester Bus Station or Chichester College.
We understand that this will cause disruption to a small number of students. We ask that you consider an alternative travel plan for the next couple of months. (Please do contact us if you will struggle as a result of this)
THIS IS WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT (03/02/10)

•  The Bus will run on a 2 hourly timetable throughout most part of the day with services arriving just before the hour in the morning and just after the hour in the afternoon/evening.
This allows the bus an hour to get to each destination which is the average journey time at present

• Two new bus stops have been added to the route. The first is located at Shripney Road just by the big roundabout up towards Tesco (this is very close to the ambulance station stop), the second stop is located halfway between Tesco and the Riverside caravan park. (We will be providing maps to help students know where to go. All services heading towards Chichester will stop at these stops.

Return journeys will service these stops up until and including the 18.10 service. Night time services have been reduced however all journeys after and including the 20.10 BOC to BRC will call at Bersted Shops and the Ambulance station.

• There will be a service leaving BOC at 22.10. Normal daytime charges will apply to this service with the night time charge not starting until 22.55.

• All students living in accommodation on BRC whose course is based in Chichester should contact either the Bognor Regis canteen or the Students’ Union.
We have successfully identified around 45 students whose lectures will finish after 16.10 on certain days. These students will be able to eat at BOC Campus when necessary. However it is vital the canteen or SU know A.S.A.P who you are.
Affected students will receive an email by tomorrow to inform them of the proposed changes. Please let us know if you plan to make other travel arrangements so you will still be able to eat at BRC.

UCSU is campaigning for the estates department to lay on an extra bus at certain points of the day, especially after 5pm in the evening. We will keep you posted on our progress.

UCSU is disappointed the University didn’t have a back up plan in place and dismissed our recommendations on Thursday 21st January.
(Our plan was an alternative route via Aldwick & Runcton)
Please remember:

We ask you to be patient and assure you we have done our best to fit around the most important thing, your academic needs.

Please treat the driver with respect. This has been a stressful few days for them too and has resulted in them skipping breaks etc so please bear with them.

The above actions will begin this Monday 8th February and are confirmed until Friday 19th February. However we strongly believe this will be in place until May when works finish. Keep your eye out for Portia, Facebook and UCSU Website messages.

A new timetable will be released tomorrow (04/02/2010). The current emergency timetable is in operation until Friday (Except it will not stop at Chichester Bus Station or College).
The drivers have been asked to wait a few minutes after the hour on selected afternoon journeys to give you time to get out of lectures.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any queries.

Brendan McCarthy
SU Vice-President

suvpresident@chi.ac.uk