Stevenage buses will run every 12 minutes rather than every 10 from the end of this month in an attempt by bosses to “improve reliability and punctuality”.

Bus operator Arriva has announced revised timetables for its Stevenage routes that will come into effect from July 30.

The prefix SB is to be removed from all local services, leaving just the number to indicate the route – for example SB1 will now be route 1.

Glen Shuttleworth from Arriva said: “The changes to services in the Stevenage area will make journeys more reliable for passengers on local routes.”

Services 1, 2, 3, 4/40 and 5/50 will all have their timetables changed so buses come every 12 minutes throughout the day rather than every 10 minutes, in what Arriva said in a statement was to “improve reliability and punctuality”.

The changes come after Arriva apologised in April for an “unusually high level of reliability issues” on Stevenage’s buses that saw services briefly deteriorate to as few as one an hour.

Arriva staff gave cupcakes to passengers at Stevenage bus station on June 29 to thank them for their patience during that period.

Other changes to the timetable will see service 7 timetable revised at peak times, with the last journey now at 11.30pm every day rather than 11.15 on weekdays and 11.25pm at weekends.

Service 8 will have an additional 6.12am journey from Symonds Green for early commuters, and a 7.30pm evening return journey from Stevenage bus station on weekdays.

Service 55 will have a revised peak period timetable “to give more reliable arrival times”, with off-peak services running every 30 minutes.

There will also be a later last weekday journey towards Letchworth, and the Saturday timetable will be changed to match the Monday-to-Friday off-peak service.

Service 856 afternoon services will be amended to better match school finishing times. The afternoon bus will now depart at 3.20pm instead of 3.25pm on weekdays, with the Wednesday time remaining at 3.52pm.

Timetables can be seen online, with changes detailed at arrivabus.co.uk/stevenage-times-july-2017.

To find out more about Arriva services in and around Stevenage see arrivabus.co.uk/herts-and-essex or download Arriva’s bus app.