From Sunday 8th January 2006 there will be significant changes to services 51, 52 and 54 as follows:

Service 51 - during the daytime on Mondays to Saturdays, this service will be replaced by new service 50. This will operate from Eastbourne via the current service 51 route to Arlington Roundabout, then continue along the A22 to Diplocks Way, Gleneagles Drive, Hempstead Lane, Anglesey Avenue, London Road, Horsebridge Road, Hawks Road, Hawthylands Road, Battle Road, Hailsham Town Centre, Market Street, Bayham Road, Greenwich Road, St Mary's Avenue, Hailsham Town Centre then back to Eastbourne via reverse of above route.

Service 52 - there is no change to the route, but many journeys will run up to 15 minutes earlier than at present. The Sunday service will no longer operate.

Service 54 - there is no change to the route between Eastbourne and Uckfield, but there are minor changes to timetable. In addition, certain journeys will be extended from Uckfield to and from East Grinstead to replace Metrobus service 261.

Service 7/7A - from Monday 9th January 2006 there will be minor changes to these services. Journeys will extend to and from Memorial Roundabout and there are minor changes to the timetable in the morning and evening peak periods.

From Monday 23rd January road resurfacing will be taking place in Kings Drive. The Bus Stop situated outside the District General Hospital will not be in use and a temporary stop will be situated by the mini-roundabout.

These works will take a few days and therefore services using Kings Drive may experience slight delays especially at peak times.

We can only apologise for any inconvenience these roadworks may cause.

Unlike most operators in the UK we have been successful in holding fares unchanged for fifteen months. The changes we made to services in September 2005 reduced operating costs and enabled us to hold fares a little longer than we would have been able to.

However further increases to costs such as wages, insurance, fuel and spare parts since that time leave us no option but to change the way we charge for journeys on our buses. We must make sure that we properly maintain our buses as safety is obviously our prime concern, this is becoming ever more expensive and the cost must be passed on.

As well as asking users to pay more we will continue to constantly analyse and reduce our own costs wherever possible. Remember the Borough Council is the majority shareholder of Eastbourne Buses and has asked us to maintain as wide a network of services as we can, ensuring that those most needy in our community who rely on the bus for their independence are still able to benefit from a reliable service even if at lower frequencies to the busy routes. Several routes make losses but are cross-subsidised by profits from busier routes. If the Company was owned by one of the large bus operating groups it is unlikely that this would be allowed to continue and significant areas would be in danger of losing all or part of their bus service.

First the good news: we want to give regular users the opportunity to benefit from discounted travel.

From April 1 2006 everyone aged sixty and over will be entitled to free, yes free, travel on our services for journeys commencing after 9.00 am on weekdays and all day on Saturday and Sunday. We look forward to welcoming existing and new customers as they benefit from the introduction of this facility.

A new annual ticket at £540 for unlimited travel on all of our bus services means that it will be possible to obtain your travel needs for the equivalent of under £1.50 a day. A similar ticket will also be available at a monthly rate of £54 at a smaller discount. We know from comments from our customers that they think our buses are too expensive for short journeys. We have identified a range of journeys on each of our services and are making a special offer whereby users will be able to make the return journey between the same points on the same day FREE!!!. Ask the driver for a Boomerang ticket. A list of journeys on which the tickets are valid is available from our website or by post from our offices at Birch Road, Eastbourne, BN23 6PD.

By popular request return tickets will also be available for longer journeys on all our buses in the Borough area, offering a discount over two single journey tickets.

We are taking the opportunity to remove a problem with the identification of those who are genuinely eligible for the child discount rate. Our drivers have been repeatedly placed in confrontational situations when people who have clearly passed their sixteenth birthday insist on being allowed the discount. Every fare evader helps to bring forward the date of the next fares increase so we are proposing to make a couple of changes in this area.

From the date of the changes the Child Discount rate will not be available to anyone boarding a bus after ten p.m. In a large number of the incidents reported to us by drivers those attempting to obtain the discount at this time of night often smell of alcohol or tobacco but still cause a scene trying to get a cheap ride. This new rule will hopefully reduce the possibility of confrontation and delay to services.

In addition from early summer child discount rates will not be available to anyone over the age of ten, (ie from eleventh birthday) unless they are holding an acceptable form of ID. Information on what forms of ID will be acceptable will become available during the spring and further details of the scheme will be published in the Herald group of newspapers, by notice and leaflet on our buses and on the Company website at www.eastbournebuses.co.uk.

The one-way fare for longer journeys in the Borough will increase to £1.50 but there will be a discounted day return ticket at £2.90. The special child rate fare will be 80p for a one-way ticket and £1.50 for a return. One-way fares on services outside the Borough will increase by between 10p and 60p with the cost of returns increasing as a consequence.

The Saver 7 will be £15.00 a week for an adult and £9 for a child with an usbus.id card which is available to school children in this area.