Chelmsford Borough Council: Victor says put all your staff up in the Boreham ‘Premier Inn’ hotel on a Sunday night. Get all staff to drive as far as Tesco Springfield Road at 8:30am on the Monday morning from the hotel, taking notes along the way.

Since 1997 (the past eleven years) I’ve had to ‘rush hour commute’ from Witham to Chelmsford in order to get to University (1997 - 2000), first job (2000 - 2006) my own company (2007- now).

Because of the nature of my business I have to drive, and need a car available during my day in order to get to clients, schools, etc… I also car share with my fiancée (Justina) who also works in Chelmsford, driving is the most cost effective way to get to work.

We start our journey from close to point ‘A’ and get to point ‘B’ usually very easily (usually no more than 15 minutes).  Its getting from point ‘B’ (the end of Springfield Road in Chelmsford) to point ‘C’ (my office car park) where it all goes horribly wrong, and has done for the past eleven years (except when schools are on holiday!)

When we hit the end of Springfield Road (see the red x below) it can take up to (and over) half an hour to drive half a mile to ‘B’ where I work and Justina walks to ‘A’.

Springfield Road is one of the main roads into the town, a narrow road which can longer cope with the volume of vehicles using it. Traffic joins the road from side streets, busy junctions (with traffic lights) and is slowed further by stupidity, such as a refuge collection lorry picking up bins during rush hour.

I’ve been timing the route from the X point using the stopwatch feature on my phone.  Here is the 32 minute  nightmare journey time getting from ‘X’ to ‘B’ today…

I put it to Chelmsford Borough Council that they need to do something to improve access to Chelmsford for people coming from the Colchester bound direction of the A12, it is quite simply a joke.

I’m not sure how things have improved in the past eleven years for people coming from the London bound direction but I’ve noticed how increased traffic volume has just made things get worse and worse in the past few years.

Something needs to be done.

Have you tried Chelmsford Park & Ride?

• No. It costs £4.40 per day for two of us (£2.20 each) to use, and parking is already free at my office.
• I need a car to hand for use during the day for the nature of my business, I don’t want to have to catch a bus to get to it.
• Chelmsford Park & Ride is too far out of town, and requires passing Chelmsford in order to get to it.
• I hear frequent complaints that Park & Ride is infrequent and overcrowded, I often see the black bus with lots of people standing and swaying about.
• The time taken to get to ‘Park & Ride’, park, get a bus, transit, walk to office would probably be almost the same as the time sat waiting in traffic on Springfield Road to park in a space right outside the place of work, and would cost £4.40 more than by going by car for the whole journey.

Why don’t Justina and yourself take the train each day?

• The day rate for the nine minute return train journey (Witham - Chelmsford - Witham) is £5.80 per person per day, so for us that would be £11.60 a day (£58 a week, £232 a month) and we currently spend £30 in fuel per week (£120 per month).  An equivalent nine mile journey on the (reliable) Spanish rail system would cost £1.45 compared to £5.80 in this country.

But you don’t need to pay a day rate you could get a rail season ticket for less!

• We don’t always work in Chelmsford. Next week I’m working in Chelmsford, Cardiff, Norwich, London and Colchester, Justina is working in London and Southampton. Buying a ’season ticket’ would be a waste of money as we would be ‘paying not to use it’. We need a form of transport that is reliable, cost effective and can be used to meet variations of destinations without being locked to one location to save money.
• I need a car sitting in my office carpark to shoot off to clients, schools, etc.  Justina uses the same car to shoot off to other branches of her company that need her support at short notice.
• In 2006 I tried commuting for a whole year and found ‘National Express’ to be unreliable, its no wonder that sites such as http://ihatenationalexpresseastanglia.blogspot.com exist.

Suggestions:

• National Express East Anglia Rail:  Don’t sell season tickets, sell journeys. Season Tickets only work for commuters who do the same journey every day at the same time.  If National Express sold me 100 discount Witham - Chelmsford - Witham journeys for say an upfront ‘£400′ I’d buy into that and use the train on days where I’m 100% certain I’ll be in the office all day, or Justina needs the car to go somewhere else.  Once the 100 tickets are used up I buy more.  Pay-as-you-go-trains!
• Chelmsford Park & Ride: Put a Park & Ride near the Boreham exit of the A12.  Charge ‘per car’ rather than ‘per person’.
• Chelmsford Borough Council: Like Victor suggested earlier… Put all your staff up in the Boreham ‘Premier Inn’ hotel on a Sunday night. Get all staff to drive to Tesco Springfield Road at 8:30am on the Monday morning from the hotel… Get them to take notes!

UPDATE!

At 8:15am (till 9am) on Tuesday 16 October 2008 Ray Clark, presenter of the BBC Essex Breakfast Show reported on Justina and my journey to Chelmsford from Witham after reading this blog post.

Thanks to Hal MacLean for this recording of the show:

 Matthew Eaves on the BBC Essex Radio Breakfast Show with Ray Clark : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download