Stagecoach service cuts and other changes from 23rd January

Stagecoach have announced a number of changes to services in and around Cambridge to take effect from Sunday 23rd January. They’re mostly cuts to services, sadly.

The following routes will operate with a reduction in the frequency of buses:

• Citi 1: reduced to every 15 mins – 4 buses per hour where previously there were 6
• Citi 2: every 20 mins – 3 per hour instead of 4 (and 6 per hour pre-pandemic)
• Citi 3: also every 20 mins – 3 per hour instead of 4 (and 6 per hour pre-pandemic)
• Citi 7: every 30 mins – 2 per hour instead of 3
• Newmarket Road Park & Ride: every 15 mins – 4 per hour instead of 5 (and 6 per hour as recently as mid-October)
• Busway A & B: each route along the main Busway corridor every 30 mins – in total 4 per hour instead of 6 (and 8 per hour pre-pandemic). And on the A, the additional New Square-Trumpington journeys will operate only every 30 mins – 2 per hour instead of 3

[The above relate to the main daytime frequencies, Monday-Saturday, of course.]

The Citi 5 will be routed via Oakington, and the Citi 6 – with the exception of the daily Dry Drayton/Madingley trip – cancelled. Whilst there is no change to the frequency (Oakington and Bar Hill continue to have 2 services per hour), this means there will be only 2 buses per hour between the city centre and Girton Corner instead of the current 4, with a similar 50% reduction to Sunday services. Bar Hill passengers should note that, as a result of the diversion via Oakington, trips to/from the city will take roughly 10 minutes longer than at present.

In an attempt to improve punctuality, minor changes to journey times are being introduced on the Citi 1, Citi 2, Citi 3 and Babraham Park & Ride services. There are route changes on the Citi 1 (no longer serving the Ida Darwin Hospital) and Newmarket Road Park & Ride (operating via Napier Street instead of the Grafton Centre on outbound journeys). The re-routing of the Citi 5 via Oakington (see above) means that the Crematorium will no longer be served by any bus service.

There are also minor changes to journey times on the Busway feeder services V3 and V5.

More information, and links to the revised timetables, are available on the Stagecoach website.

A note for users of the Citi 5 and 6: At the time of writing (6pm, 17th January – updated midday, 19th January) the version of the revised timetable available online suggests two things: (1) FIXED that only one of the two hourly outbound services (Mon-Sat) goes via Manor Farm Close and High Street in Oakington; (2) that the hourly journey to Swavesey doesn’t operate via the Bar Bill perimeter road, instead taking the direct route from Bar Hill Tesco to Longstanton. CABU believes both of these are unintentional errors in the preparation of the timetable for the Citi 5 (they are not supported by Stagecoach’s own Journey Planner, for example). We have asked Stagecoach to check as a matter of urgency – and to issue a corrected version if necessary. This post will be updated once the situation is clarified. [Corrected timetable now uploaded – 20 Jan]