New sustainable travel app for Essex launched

Journey planning made simple with the launch of TravelEssex, Essex County Council’s new, free-to-use local journey-planning app. 

Travelling in and around Essex has become simpler this week, following the launch of the new TravelEssex app.

A free-to-use sustainable journey planner, the new app helps people in Essex to plan their journeys and travel by foot, bike, bus and train anywhere in the county.

Providing real-time travel information, users are given detailed expected journey and departure times for bus services, including First, Arriva, Hedingham, and Stephensons, as well as Greater Anglia and C2C rail, National Rail and London Underground trains.

The app has been launched to encourage residents to make sustainable journeys more frequently as part of Essex County Council’s Safer, Greener, Healthier approach to travel. It brings all sustainable travel options into one place for ease of use and with features such as live-alerts, it will enable users to stay up to date with travel disruptions.

The new resource is part of a number of measures launched in response to the Essex Climate Action Commission’s report Net Zero: Making Essex Carbon Neutral, published last year, recognising the need to encourage more sustainable travel and help people to move away from using their car. Transport is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK and Essex emissions are higher than the national average, despite the fact that 30% of the population live less than 3 miles from their job. (1) Use of cars is not only hurting us environmentally, but economically too. In 2017, more than £37bn in the UK was lost through traffic congestion.

Councillor Lee Scott, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Highways Maintenance and Sustainable Transport, said: “The argument for leaving our cars at home is irrefutable. We all have to make fundamental changes over the next decade to tackle the climate crisis and making more of our journeys on public transport, by bike or on foot is something we can all do to make a tangible difference.

“Whether you are heading to work, taking the family on a day out or simply exploring our beautiful countryside, this new app is a practical tool that makes it that much easier to access sustainable travel options and encourage us all to put the car keys down.”

To download the TravelEssex app, search for it on the Play or Apple app store. For more information visit www.travelessex.co.uk