Colchester students will be able to save up to £240 a year on travel costs from this autumn.

The cost-cutting trial follows a deal between Colchester Sixth Form College and First Group, the bus and train operator.

Students will qualify for savings of as much as 20 per cent of their fares in the deal, believed to be the first of its kind in the county.

Discussions for the plan, which has slashed costs of travel on Great Eastern railways and Eastern National buses, had been on and off since Christmas. Agreement wasreached after several weeks of negotiation.

Students have had special fares on buses for two years but this is the first time that discounts covering both forms of travel have been put in place.

It is expected 350 students will benefit from the bus deal and a further 100 to 150 from the train deal.

A student travelling from Capel St Mary to the college by bus would save more than £6 a week - £240 a year - while a student travelling in from Manningtree by train is set to save more than 20 per cent on current long-term season ticket fares.

College vice-principal Bob Eden said: "These deals are good news for college students and for the environment. The lower fares are of great benefit to parents and students"

The college, with its specialist courses, has many students who travel for more than an hour each day. As a town centre site, it is aware of the motor traffic its 2,000 students could generate.

Mr Eden said: "We see it as part of our responsibility to reduce the impact on this traffic where possible and to convince young people there is a viable alternative to the car. We will be monitoring the rail trial particularly carefully."

The integrated deal follows the scrapping of Essex County Council funding for post-16 travel last year.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.