Alasdair McGregorTravellers in Waveney are set to benefit from a major investment in new technology to kit out bus stops with 'real time' timetables, telling them exactly when their next service is due.Alasdair McGregor

Travellers in Waveney are set to benefit from a major investment in new technology to kit out bus stops with 'real time' timetables, telling them exactly when their next service is due.

Transport chiefs are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on an initial trial in Lowestoft before an expected rolling out of the scheme across Suffolk, including in market towns like Beccles.

Some of the new signs have already been placed on stops in Lowestoft, but the scheme is expected to spread across the town by the end of next month.

Guy McGregor, the council's portfolio holder for roads and transport, said: 'There is going to be a really big improvement for people in Lowestoft; it is a terrific leap forward.

'It is a big investment by the county council. We want to make travel as easy as possible and the idea is to give people seamless travel.

'We intend to roll this out across the country and I'm pleased Lowestoft will be getting on with it. We should not have a situation where people are left waiting in the cold for a bus.

Unlike traditional bus timetables that give out when a service should arrive at a particular stop, the real time boards possess technology to track the movements of vehicles and give an accurate indication of when they will arrive.

'It all goes to making travel much easier,' added Mr McGregor.

The public transport investment comes just months after more than 100 people attended a public meeting in Lowestoft, organised by Waveney MP Bob Blizzard, to demand that bus company owners make improvements to services.

Meanwhile, an initiative to get people out of their cars by offering them personal walking and public transport travel plans was launched in Lowestoft in September.

Sustainable transport charity Sustrans joined forces with Suffolk County and Waveney District councils to use more than �450,000 of lottery money for the scheme.