Support Our Buses Task Force and Simonds: New Timetables for 73 Effective Monday 24th February 2025 and 73A (Thurston Community College) effective September 2025
Following a successful bid for funding for extra buses from Diss to Bury St Edmunds, via local villages such as Barningham, Bardwell and Walsham Le Willows, local bus operator Simonds and the Support Our Buses Task Force have collaborated to devise new timetables. These will be effective from 24th February and will result in changes to the 73 and 73A bus routes. The new timetables aim to improve access to the areas served by the buses.
In addition Simonds, who are part of the Transport Made Simple Group, will bring new buses into service on this route. These are high specification low carbon emission certified buses, which improve accessibility for passengers and have USB charging sockets, high back, comfortable seats and a coffee-shop style interior design.
We are particularly pleased that we have been able to agree to send route 73A, which serves Thurston Community College, through Hepworth which should enable a number of pupils to board there instead of being ferried to other stops. We are also pleased to be providing a later 73 service from Bury St Edmunds at 18.15. These changes help workers and also ensure that young people from more than 13 villages can get to schools and colleges in Bury St Edmunds and Thurston. New timetables are now available online at simonds.co.uk and on the buses on the route. Parish Councils will play their part in distributing these around the impacted villages. The 70 and 70A continue to service the villages along the A143.
The Task Force including our Suffolk County Councillor Joanna Spicer and Simonds hope that these changes will encourage more and more people to use the buses.
We all continue to work hard to try to ensure that our buses, which are a vital service connecting our rural communities, are here for the long term.
Karen Witton
Chair – Support Our Buses Task Force
Email: supportourbuses@bardwell-pc.gov.uk
