First Essex stuck in the wrong time zone as BST change catches them off guard

Passengers across Essex faced widespread disruption this morning after First Essex failed to adjust their clocks for British Summer Time, resulting in all services running an extra hour behind schedule.

While most of the country successfully moved their clocks forward overnight, First Essex appeared to have missed the memo. As a result, buses already notorious for their tardiness are now arriving even later than usual, pushing delays to levels once thought impossible.

Commuters at bus stops across the county were left bewildered as scheduled buses failed to appear — until, over two hours after they were due, they eventually crawled into view.

“I thought I’d just missed mine,” said one passenger in Chelmsford. “Then I checked the app and saw it hadn’t been cancelled, which was suspicious in itself. Eventually, the bus showed up, and the driver just shrugged and said, ‘It’s been one of those mornings.’”

In a statement issued later in the morning, First Essex acknowledged the mistake, saying: "While we strive to move the everyday in Essex, it appears one thing we forgot to move were our clocks. We sincerely apologise for this operational issue and any inconvenience caused to our passengers. We are working swiftly to correct the issue and ensure our services are operating at their usual level of reliability."

The company has assured customers that their clocks fleet will be updated “as soon as possible,” though they have not provided a firm timeline. A spokesperson later clarified, “This will be resolved as quickly as possible, but, in the meantime, we ask passengers to bear with us as we synchronise our operations with the rest of the UK.”

Despite the apology, many passengers have expressed frustration, with some arguing that First Essex’s failure to account for the time change is just a symptom of a wider problem.

“They’ve basically invented their own time zone at this point,” said one commuter in Basildon. “It’s not British Summer Time, it’s Bus Summer Time — where services operate at least an hour later than advertised, if at all.”

Others have taken a more lighthearted view. A group of regular passengers in Colchester has reportedly started referring to First Essex’s version of timekeeping as the “First Essex Delayed and Unreliable Punctuality” (FEDUP) time zone, where an arrival time is more of a theoretical concept than an actual commitment.

Meanwhile, alternative travel options saw an unexpected surge in demand. Taxi firms reported an increase in bookings, cyclists took to the roads in greater numbers, and at least one frustrated commuter was seen making the journey from Braintree to Chelmsford on an e-scooter.

As of now, First Essex has promised to rectify the issue, though passengers are advised to adjust their schedules accordingly — or, as some regulars have suggested, consider factoring in an entire extra day if they have anywhere important to be.