498 Bus: Nine year campaign ends in success

Members of the Brentwood Bus & Rail Users Association were celebrating this week after their nine year campaign to get the 498 bus service to go into the grounds of Queens Hospital was finally given the go ahead. The new service which is operated by First buses will start on Saturday 27th April and it will mean that bus users from Brentwood will now be able to get off in the Hospital grounds. This will make a major difference particularly for the elderly users who up until now have had to either wait for another bus or walk to the hospital from Romford Town Centre in the cold and the rain.

Clr David Kendall, the Associations founder and Secretary, said:

"One of the reasons the Association was first formed all those years ago was to fight for a direct 498 bus service into the grounds of Queens Hospital because we knew how important it was to so many Brentwood bus users. Over the years we thought we were close to getting a breakthrough but our hopes were always dashed. This time we have been told it is definitely going to happen and we are all delighted."

"I would like to recognise the efforts made by our former Chair Wendy Way for all the work she put in alongside others in pushing and campaigning for this service. Wendy and I attended many meetings and wrote a lot of letters asking for the change to happen and I know she will be over the moon to hear this news. I would also like to thank all the members of our Association for their support and Brentwood Community Transport for proving to First and others that a direct service into the grounds of Queens Hospital always was a commercially viable proposition"