A year ago I posted about my meetings with First Aberdeen, and my asks for a late night bus service, and now that idea has become a reality!
Over the past year and a half of being President, I've been working to try and improve the bus service to campus after listening to student feedback. I've met several times with First Aberdeen and raised feedback, discussed concerns and raised ideas for changes. It is great to see that this work has been paying off, as in recent student rep meetings, buses has been one area that students have said has improved the most. Over a year ago, I had hundreds of negative comments from students, and I met with the management team to deal with them. Since then we have seen the introduction of the 1A service, increased buses from Woolmanhill, new double decker buses on the 1 route, extra coaches and improved capacity at peak times, and the result has been a much better service for students.
I wrote about all of these changes and the demands I made of first bus in a blog post a year ago. Click here to read it.
My main ask back then was the introduction of a late night bus service when the library is 24 hours. The 24 hour library in January and May is a really popular service for students who are studying, but a big limitation is that the last bus is usually 11pm. This means that students options are either leave early, and end up not using 24 hour library, stay all night until 6am for the first bus, or have to walk home in the dark and cold. I wanted to see a late night service from RGU to St. Machar during January and May.
Timetable for New U1 Bus Service
I am delighted to annouce that First Aberdeen have now introduced the U1 Late Night Bus Service! This will run from 9th - 20th January from Monday to Friday with buses leaving RGU at 1:15am, 2:15am, 3:15am and 4:15am. All normal fares will apply and all First Aberdeen tickets will be accepted, including student tickets such as Student Annual, FirstWeek, First4Week, First12Week.
UPDATE: After working with First Aberdeen, we are pleased to say that Concessionary tickets CAN now be used on the U1 service.
This is a huge win for RGU:Union and a great example of 'Achieved in Partnership' where student representatives and your elected Presidents have been able to make a tangible difference for students. I'm so proud to see that the original wording of what I'd asked for a year ago in my blog is exactly what we have been able to see introduced. Thanks to First Aberdeen for listening to students feedback and introducing the new service. I hope students will find it useful, and are able to achieve their best during their exams. I encourage all students to raise their feedback with RGU:Union, as this is another example of where big changes can be made by students, for students.