New Waterbeach-Cambridge service starts Monday 7th July

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A new service connecting Waterbeach with central Cambridge begins operation on Monday 7th July. Operated by Central Connect, and numbered 100, buses start at the Cambridge Research Park, travel via Waterbeach, Horningsea and Fen Ditton, then along Newmarket Road and East Road to Drummer Street Bus Station. Outbound journeys will call at the Grafton Centre.

The service operates 7 days a week. There are 30 return journeys on weekdays from early morning to late evening. The Saturday service has 28 return journeys, and on Sundays there’s what is essentially an hourly service (with slight variations at the beginning and end of the day).

Further information about the service and fares, with links to both a timetable and a route map, is available from the Central Connect website.

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Cambridge Area Bus Users • seeks to represent – and campaign on behalf of – bus passengers in and around Cambridge; • is independent of any political party.

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4 thoughts on “New Waterbeach-Cambridge service starts Monday 7th July”

  1. The experience trying to use the 100 gets worse. With the first two attempts to use it the bus failed to turn up/left early. On the third attempt the driver wouldn’t accept cash payment. With the fourth attempt the driver tried claiming the ticket already held wasn’t valid on Central Connect buses, even though their website sells them. Even worse, the same driver stopped en route to do some shopping leaving the bus, and passengers, unattended with the engine running in the middle of a busy road. Quite shocking behaviour. I also know of people who have been carried past their intended destination when the drivers refuse to let them off as they don’t know where the stop is.

    The current operation hardly comes across as a professional service.

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  2. No timetables on bus stops and it doesn’t appear on the electronic departure screen at the village green stop either. It’s still early days but punctuality seems to leave a lot to be desired with the one I wanted running 7 minutes early (or was it 23 late?)

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  3. With Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority moving towards franchising (meaning that all services will be commissioned by the Authority) they need to take action to market, promote and publicise all services within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

    But, then, they have a poor inheritance.

    Back in April 2019, a (then) senior county councillor and (then) Public Transport Officer, explained that:

    Some years ago the county council took the decision that publicity for services provided commercially should be the responsibility of the commercial operator and that the county would not provide such publicity solely for the benefit of a commercial operator.

    This even went so far as the institutional neglect of bus stop infrastructure. We were informed that:

    Bus stop locations are the decision of the county council in consultation with bus operators and are then entered on the National Public Transport Access Nodes (NaPTAN) database. A pole may be provided where a convenient piece of street furniture, such as a street lighting column, is not available. It is the responsibility of the operator to mount their flag on the pole. Timetable frame and flag are installed by the bus operator. Only about half the stops have a flag, the rest are unmarked.

    It was only on 15 November 2023 that the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s Transport & Infrastructure Committee agreed that:

    (7.2.e) The CPCA would go through an options process to understand what was the right approach for a combined authority to take in regard to ownership and maintenance of bus stop infrastructure.

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  4. I wonder whether the new Waterbeach service will be publicised at bus stops, in the local press et cetera? I know from my experience with Service 67 that Central Connect will not do this. And of course if potential users do not know about the service, they will not use it.

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