Epping in the snow

It seems almost compulsory for anyone with a website to put on show their pictures of the snow, so here is my contribution.

Trees at the top of St John's Road / Hartland Road / Kendal Avenue

If you look carefully at the top right hand photograph (Hartland Road) it shows the post and the buses operating successfully, so well done to them.

It’s a pity the police only got round to closing Kendal Avenue (bottom photos) after several utterly predictable bumps and near misses. We live in hope that one day the county council will add the road to its gritting rota, given that there are always problems on this steep hill, but at the moment it isn’t treated as a priority route despite being used as an access to Epping Station. It’s something Janet Whitehouse has raised with both the police and Highways and will continue to do so.

Bus News: Route 19 (Epping Station to Harlow) extended to Ongar

From Monday 18 January the SM19 service from Epping Station to Harlow via Thornwood will also run on Saturdays along a route which has been extended to Ongar. [Information from Essex County Council’s Bus Passenger News.]

You can find out more about local bus services here and at Traveline (tel: 0871 200 2233). I’ve also found this independent website useful for Epping to Harlow journeys.

Bus News: H1 replacement bus services

Imperial Buses’ D261 (N261 PJR), a Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer, at the 2009 Cobham bus rally at Wisley Airfield from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Imperial_Buses_D261.JPGThere has been some local concern about the withdrawal of the H1 bus service from 19 December. County councillor Janet Whitehouse and others raised concerns about what bus services would be available over the Christmas period before the launch of the revised Service 55 on 4 January.

The latest Bus Passenger News reports that:

From 19 December 2009, Essex County Council will fund a Saturday service operating to the current H1 Saturday route and timetable. This service will be numbered Service H1 and will be operated by Regal Busways.

Between 21 – 24 December and 29 – 31 December Essex County Council will fund a temporary replacement service on Service 55 operated by Travel With Hunny (for a timetable leaflet contact the Essex Traffic Control Centre on 0845 6000 110). Please note that this service will operate to a different route in Loughton to the current service H1. Contact Travel With Hunny on 01708 732604 for full details.

From 4 January 2010 Service 55 will be operated commercially Mondays to Fridays by Travel with Hunny to a revised route and timetable serving Loughton.

Timetable details should be available via this link in due course. This newspaper article gives some background details.