CHANGES are being made to Stagecoach bus services in Taunton and Wellington from November 2.

Somerset County Council has approved the changes to routes 63, 90, 91 and 99/99A/99B.

Stagecoach says the changes are needed to boost reliability and improve connections and timings.

The main changes in the Taunton and Wellington area are:

* Service 99/99A: – The Wellington to Taunton section of the route, which continues to Yeovil via Chard and Crewkerne, is being axed. Stagecoach blames low passenger numbers but has promised the cut will enable improvements to other services.

* Service 63 Ilton – Taunton: Additional journeys to Ilton and revised times. The route will also now go via the bus gate off the M5 roundabout.

* Services 99/99A/99B Taunton – Chard – Yeovil: An extra journey will serve Yeovil College during peak morning hours and the bus will use a new route between Taunton (Somerset College and Musgrove Park Hospital) Chard, Crewkerne and Yeovil. From December, services will connect with the improved South West Trains timetable from Crewkerne.

Michelle Hargreaves, managing director of Stagecoach South-West, said: “We fully accept that changes need to be made to improve the reliability of our Somerset services. I am confident that residents will see a positive change to our services from November 2.

“I can only apologise that we didn’t get it right first time around and want to thank everyone who took the time to write to us explaining their frustrations. This feedback has made it much easier for us to quickly identify problems and work towards rectifying them.”

Revised timetables will be available shortly.