I have been provided with a summary of the bus timetable changes that Stagecoach is going to implement from Monday 8 May,

The company has made a small number of alterations to its plans in response to comments received at their public consultation events and at Aberdeenshire Council’s Area Bus Forums. Council officers had also requested minor changes to contracted journeys to improve connections for passengers.

There are cuts to commercial services across the North East to tailor levels of service with passenger demand, which has been falling over the last two years, to ensure viability whilst improving reliability with more realistic journey/layover times. These affect services on the A947 (Service 35), A96 (Services 10 and 37), A944 (Services X17 and X18) and A90 (south) (Services 7, 7A, 7B and 7C) which is cause for concern.

Here are the changes affecting the Aberdeen – Portlethen/Newtonhill/Stonehaven corridor (the 7, 7A, 7B, 7C, and X7 services):

• Stonehaven – the mainline service will no longer serve areas to the west of the two railway bridges, with buses only serving the Thomson Terrace and Forest Park areas. To compensate for this, the Town service is enhanced as Service 4A/4C above, serving Farrochie and Edinview areas.

• 0718 hours ex Spurryhillock – Barclay Street – Aberdeen (Monday – Friday) is re-instated in response to requests received at the Kincardine and Mearns Area Bus Forum.

• Marywell Park will be served hourly instead of half-hourly.

• Frequency reduced from 15 mins to 20 mins between Aberdeen and Portlethen, but there will be a consistent route with all buses serving Schoolhill, Asda, Portlethen Academy and Berrymuir Road.

• Buses will operate hourly between Aberdeen and Newtonhill, instead of every half-hour.

• Attached is a summary of the proposed number of journeys between the various settlements on the corridor, compared to current provision.