COLCHESTER’s long awaited park and ride centre will open on April 6, the Gazette understands.

The centre, by the A12 at Cuckoo Farm, will be the base for a fleet of new buses running every day to Queen Street and back.

The buses will run between 7am and 7pm, with return tickets costing about £3. The route has also been revealed.

But commuters say the new park and ride buses need to run earlier and later if they are to use them to connect with trains using Colchester North station.

The proposed 7am start would mean commuters would miss early-morning trains into London, while the 7pm finishing time would mean leaving Liverpool Street on the 5.52pm train to catch the last park and ride bus.

Tony Emms, who gets the train into the capital most days, said: “The trains are jammed from 6am onwards. The 7.13am train would actually be the 11th train after 6am.

“To have any chance of being at your desk before 9am, the latest train you could catch is the 7.38am, which means the park and ride would only be useful for people catching five morning trains.

“What’smore, that is assuming you start that late and work close to Liverpool Street, which a lot of people don’t.

“Likemany other commuters, I prefer to get to the office for 8am, so the park and ride would be of no use at all.”

Fellow commuter Steve Joyce said: “The times are neither early enough nor late enough for commuters. It’s a missed opportunity.”

Another London-based worker, Suez Wray, said: “The 7pm finish isn’t late enough for commuters.

“The trains out of Liverpool Street are rarely on time and then there’s the traffic getting across town and back to your car.”

One way around it would be to run exclusive commuter buses between the park and ride centre and North Station between 6.30am and 8am and until 8.30pm.

Borough councillor Martin Goss said: “Essex County Council has missed a real market here.

“The trains after 6am are always pretty busy and by 7am, the station car park is already filling up quite nicely.

“The bus hours will cause some people some trouble, while the project will pass the early commuters by.

“That said, the service isn’t suddenly going to start to turn a massive profit, so if it is initially running at a loss, then I suppose there has to be a trade-off.”