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Post by Deleted on Dec 16, 2021 19:41:30 GMT
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Post by wirewiper on Dec 17, 2021 15:25:36 GMT
A sad but not unexpected development.
Commuter coach services boomed in the early 1980s, aided by deregulation (coach routes were deregulated in October 1980) and poor commuter rail services at the time. The three-week rail strike of 1982 convinced many to turn their backs on the train, ushering in a blossoming of new coach routes - anyone who witnessed it will recall the continuous stream of Southend Transport coaches departing Aldgate for Essex in a 1980s evening peak, there was usually at least one in, loading up. However improvements to the rail network following the advent of Network SouthEast, and ever-worsening delays on the road network, slowly choked off the coach demand from the early 1990s onward. A steady reduction in the number of lower-paid clerical jobs in the City of London, the core customer for the commuter coaches, also contributed to the decline.
The routes that tended to survive - until now - were those which served residental estates that were distant from a rail station but adjacent to the road network, as in the Medway Towns and Hemel Hempstead. The growth of Canary Wharf as a place of employment also helped the survival of some routes as rail links from some places such as North Kent could be awkward and time-consuming.
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