THE new hourly bus service between Ely, High Barns and the Princess of Wales Hospital that started on Monday has been welcomed by the City of Ely Council.

Transport representative Councillor Philip Eden said: “We are very pleased that High Barns and the hospital will now have an hourly service, rather than a bus that only ran every two hours.

“We welcome the new 9A service, but hope that it will be reliable, that is the most important thing. It will use a bus that has previously had to cross the level crossing, so we hope this will not result in hold-ups. I am sure Stagecoach will do all it can.”

The new bus service means that the route 9 Littleport bus will no longer go through High Barns.

Mr Eden added: “Stagecoach has made these changes as a result of the unreliability of the Littleport service; the Littleport bus has been late getting back to Ely.”

On the Stagecoach website, it says there are minor time table changes on routes 9 and 11/12 “following customer concerns about reliability on certain journeys.”

It adds: “At the same time, new route 9A will run from Ely to High Banrs and the hospital every hour, Monday to Saturday.”

More information can be obtained from the Stagecoach website; or by calling 01223 433250.