Bus chiefs faced the wrath of commuters on Friday after cutting more than a third of early-morning coaches from Southend to London.

Arriva and Thamesway are slashing the number of coaches to the capital - even though 800 people travel on the service every morning.

They claim not enough people are using them, and have decided to join forces by merging the commuter services and reducing the number of coaches from 27 to 16.

Furious City workers have attacked the decision, saying it would mean either an earlier start to get to the office - or being very late.

Insurance broker Zoe Hughes, of Kilworth Avenue, Southend, uses the Arriva coach service to London Victoria every day to go to her job in the city's famous Lloyds building.

The 22-year-old is angry that the 6.45am bus service she uses is going to be scrapped.

She said: "I use the bus every day and it gets me into work for 9am.

"With the new timetable I will have to get an earlier bus, and if I miss it there is not another one until much later, which would mean I would be late for work."

Juliette Miller, 29, also travels to London every morning.

She said: "A lot of people rely on these buses. They are packed every morning. If they cut the number going into London at this time there will not be enough seats."

And Karen Collett, 33, added: "They are trying to scrap the commuter services and concentrate on the day-tripper services. But we need the buses. I couldn't afford to commute in every day by train."

A season ticket to London by train costs commuters £2,440, whereas the same journey by coach - with takes about 90 minutes - costs £1,040.

Graeme Newman, operations manager for Arriva, said: "We have joined forces with Thamesway to provide a more reliable service to London.

"This will mean a cut in the number of buses running to London, but hopefully they will provide a better service for our customers."

Mr Newman added: "At the moment we have empty spaces on the coaches going up to London.

"There are just not the number of people travelling at that time to justify so many coaches making the same trip."

The changes, which come into operation from Sunday, October 10, will affect routes X1, X2, X3, X10 and X11 run by Arriva, and Thamesway routes S1 and S2. They will be merged to form route numbers 720, 721, 722 and 723.

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