Park and ride to open on April 13

Passengers will pay £3 for the 15-minute journey into Colchester town centre from the park and ride centre, at junction 28 at the A12.

The buses will run between 7am and 7pm.

Essex Highways chief Rodney Bass said services will run every ten minutes in the morning peak, while the evening peak will have buses every 12 minutes.

During the day, buses will run every 15 minutes.

There will be no service on Sundays and the service will be free for the first few days it is operational.

Mr Bass said he recognised London commuters’ concerns that they will not be able use the service to get to work in the capital because he will not run late or early enough.

But he said the service is not for designed for commuters.

“Park and ride’s primary purpose is not to facilitate car parking arrangements at Colchester North Station of the hospital.

“It’s primary purpose is to enable people to get into the centre of Colchester to work, to play and to shop or to take the sites on the historic town.

“Particularly at peak times, it will reduce congestion in the town centre.”

He said the service would be geared at single-person cars, rather than cars which are full, be it people who car share to work or a family going into the town.

Paul Bird, director of commissioning, transport and infrastructure at Essex County Council, added: “You have to remember, before 7am we have really got a traffic problem.

“This is about reducing congestion at peak times.”

Mr Bird added the project team has drawn heavily on its Chelmsford experience, adding customers there say they rely on the service being quick, affordable and appealing.

He added: “There is an incentive there, it will be quick compared to sitting in a car, waiting to get into the town centre, we think the price is right and the buses will be state of the art, so we believe we have ticked all those boxes.”