Restore the Cambourne stop on the 905

A guest post from former 905 passenger Paul Hollinghurst

On 30^th October 2022 Stagecoach removed Cambourne’s stop on the 905 resulting in a substantial degrading of the town’s existing half hourly link to St Neots and further west, relying instead on an extended 18 which, whilst welcome, has a very limited evening service (with most evening services not serving Loves Farm and the railway station, and the end of service being earlier) and no service at all on Sundays.

Two minutes to reinstate Cambourne’s stop with a 10 to 15 minute saving in Cambridge

A two minute loop off the A428 is all that is needed for the 905 to serve Cambourne Business Park (1^st map, above) significantly quicker than the route which the 905 had previously been using.

Why not just head straight for Drummer Street and use the time saved to serve Cambourne?

This is insignificant compared to the 905’s long unnecessary loop through Cambridge which adds 10 to 15 minutes to peak services by going along East Road – Cambridge’s busiest road (2^nd map, above).

Cambridge Area Bus Users Secretary adds…

We have, on numerous occasions, requested that the 905 – now using double-deckers – should be routed via Emmanuel Road, terminating in Drummer Street bus station. Our understanding was that there was no bay which was safe for the raising luggage-hatch doors, nor the wheelchair lift, on the former X5 Plaxton Elite coaches.

Paul Hollinghurst contacted Stagecoach earlier in 2022, raising this point.

Now that the service is using double deckers (rather than coaches when it used to be the X5) would it be possible for it to use the bus station instead as this would significantly cut these delays. It would also mean the two services to Cambourne (905 and Citi 4) could depart from the same place so passengers have a convenient choice of services when either is delayed – at the moment the walk between Parker’s Piece and the bus station makes it difficult for passengers to switch services.

email fron Paul H

Stagecoach East responded, agreeing that Paul’s suggestion to use Drummer Sreet bus station rather than Parkside “is a valid one and certainly something that will be achievable once our coach fleet has been completely removed from this service.” Stagecoach further agreed they could “certainly see the benefit to our customers.”

It is noteworthy that the coaches had already been “completely removed”. Coaches operated on the X5; the 905 used standard double-deck buses from the start.

Still no change of terminus, though, despite Stagecoach promising to give the idea “further consideration”…