Stagecoach are implementing a number of changes to non-Busway services from 30th August.
X5: The Cambridge/Bedford portion of the X5 is being replaced by a new service, 905, to be operated by double deckers and routed via Cambourne and (Mon-Fri up to 19.00) CRC and the Science Park. Unfortunately timetables still haven’t been published at the time of writing. Passengers to/from Oxford and other places west of Bedford will need to change buses at Bedford. It’s unclear whether these changes will be “connections”, whether buses will be held in the case of late running, or how much this will add to overall journey times. More information (minus timetable data and answers to any of the questions raised above) is available on the Stagecoach website.
Citi 6: This will return to its pre-lockdown frequency (two buses per hour) and timetable.
16A: The Saturday outbound working will revert to its original route (Cherry Hinton Road) and will no longer serve Addenbrooke’s.
School services: There are changes to a number of services that operate during school terms but which are available for use by the general public, including rerouting (to serve specific schools) on certain Citi 5 and 18 trips and additional journeys on the 13. Services 94 and 206, and the Citi 7’s school-specific trips, are being renumbered (to 604, 606 and 607 respectively).
Full details of the changes relating to the Citi 6, 16A and school services – including timetables for all of these services – are available on the Stagecoach website.
I think we all knew cuts were coming, but there’s an awful lot of ouches in this that are both unexpected and also unnecessary.
Not guaranteeing connections onto the V services is a ridiculous thing to do. What use is a bus that only runs once a day and connects off an unreliable service? Presumably the buses on the Vs aren’t going anywhere important afterwards (and presumably they are in fact the same buses as ran unknown outward journeys?). I don’t see why they can’t either advertise them as what they are so the the routes retain a purpose, or say that they will wait for the arrival of the first bus that leaving Cambridge after XXXX and isn’t full.
Orchard Park has also come out this terribly, with the worst service it’s had since before the busway opened (worse even than at any point during lockdown!). The last Sunday bus will be the earliest ever (despite this historically being a packed bus), and would even be too early for many shop workers returning home from the city centre. There’s also no need for evening services to Orchard Park to end three hours early – they could have run evening buses through Orchard Park like they did when the A14 bridge works interrupted the guideway… if it had mattered to them.
I hope we’re not about to see the same approach to the 905 – the only sensible route takes it though Orchard Park, but the publicity material makes it appear that there won’t be any stops there.
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