J’s complaint about citi2 bus disruption

This complaint is typical of prospective passengers who try to use the citi2 service which currently terminates at Wulfstan Way.

Dear fellow bus users,

Thank you for collating complaints re: the current diversion of the number 2 bus route. Here is mine, after a very frustrating attempt to use this so-called service:

On Monday (16th September) I waited over an hour for a number 2 bus to go to Addenbrooke’s and as a result I was 45 minutes late for work. This means that 2 buses did not arrive at all in the time that I was waiting. (A bus to Brooks Road Sainsbury’s did arrive, all of the passengers alighted at the Mill Road stop and the bus went on empty to Sainsbury’s, so what is the point of this service which resulted from Stagecoach  halving the number of buses to the hospital?)

I don’t mind so much the walk at the end from Queen Edith’s Way to the Hospital, although if I was older or frail (as many people travelling there are) I would find it very difficult. Swapping from the number 2 to the number 1 in order to avoid such a walk would not be much better for such passengers, as this doubles the amount of times they have to get on and off a bus.

Getting home was even worse, when I walked back to the Queen Edith’s stop just before 5pm, only to be told that the next bus would be in 20 minutes time, despite the fact that I had visibility of the road end and stop for at least 10 minutes before that and no bus had departed in that time.

I don’t understand why the bus can’t turn up Nightingale Avenue to get to the hospital as this route is still open. This would avoid the ludicrous re-routing through Cherry Hinton as the bus could turn round at the hospital as usual.

[Cambridge Area Bus Users agree: some temporary traffic lights on Hills Road could take care of this. See  John Carroll FREng’s solution to prevent citi1/citi2 disruption. Cambridgeshire County Council have dismissed this out-of-hand. It is still not clear to us whether highway engineers – rather than only the cycling project team – have examined this solution for viability.] 

It is an outrage that Stagecoach can treat their passengers in this callous way and it is a disgrace that the Council have allowed them to do so.

[Note: Stagecoach told Cambridge Area Bus Users that the routes which they have implemented are based upon advice which they have received form Cambridgeshire County Council officers. Many local Cambridgeshire County Councillors are trying to get officers to facilitate an improved route for buses.]

I trust that this will be rectified soon, as these diversions are currently scheduled to last until March next year, through the worst months’ weather and a period when vulnerable passengers need a reliable service to the hospital site.

J, a passenger who works on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.