Working for bus passengers in and around Cambridge
Author: CBGbusUsers
Cambridge Area Bus Users
• seeks to represent – and campaign on behalf of – bus passengers in and around Cambridge;
• is independent of any political party.
Whippet have announced changes to the timetable for the U (Universal) service, which operates between Eddington and the Biomedical Campus, via the Railway Station. The changes take effect on Monday 19 October.
Peak-hour services will operate Monday-Friday every 12 minutes. The frequency of services at other times of day and at the weekend continue unchanged. Journey times are being extended to reduce late running (or the risk thereof). Weekend operation to/from the Biomedical Campus, introduced in late March, is retained.
The new timetable can be downloaded from the Whippet website.
Services have returned to operating via Addenbrooke’s Outpatients, although first priority in this area is given to the Hospital’s needs.
The University’s Travel Newsletter reports:
The University will be increasing funding for the Universal Bus service over the next four months which, combined with funding from the Government COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG) Restart package will enable the route to run every 12 minutes throughout the morning and evening peak periods, while maintaining the weekend services to CBC that we began running during the national lockdown in March. The additional funding will allow the level of service provided by the Universal to be maintained as the roads get busier again and the number of passengers carried on each service is reduced due to social distancing requirements on board.
Cambridge Area Bus Users welcome the progress towards construction of this key transport link. We are, however, concerned about details, particularly interchange with bus services – both conventional and guided – and the planned Cambridge Autonomous Metro, of which the Cambridge South East Transport scheme – a project to link the Biomedical Campus with a new Park & Ride the other side of Babraham village, near the A11, is a precursor.
Our main concern as Cambridge Area Bus Users would be that there will be high-quality sheltered provision for passengers transferring between train and bus (both guided and conventional) as close as practicable to the station entrance.
In addition to high quality provision for bus services, we would wish to see every effort made to minimise conflict between public transport transferees and car, cycle and taxi movements.
To avoid congestion which would impact on the operation of buses around this area, there should be no long-term car parking for passengers (other than Blue-Badge holders). Moreover, the use of private cars, for kiss-and-ride should be carefully regulated to make this mode of transfer rather less attractive than a public transport transfer.
Bus transfer facilities at Cambridge (city) station are appalling.
Bus stops are positioned some considerable distance away from the station entrance along a side street, with different services serving the same popular destinations (in particular Addenbrooke’s, and the city centre) departing from different, stops. Intending passengers need to be physically fit, to walk the considerable distance to the bus stops and be able to sprint between widely-spaced stops in order to catch the next available bus to their destination. They will, of course, also need to have prior knowledge of the bus services. To the best of our knowledge, these deficiencies are a result of decisions taken by the station area developers, not Network Rail, nor Greater Anglia who run the station.
By contrast, Cambridge North Station, which was developed by Network Rail (and is similarly operated by Greater Anglia) has bus connections available a short distance from the station entrance, across a pedestrian plaza.
Many commentators have suggested that Cambridge South Station would be, largely, a destination station, used by patients, visitors and staff of the nearby hospitals and by workers at other establishments on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, in particular AstraZeneca. We, Queen Edith’s Community Forum, and local councillors have, however, pointed out that this station will most likely become the railhead of choice for residents in an area stretching from Cherry Hinton and Fulbourn through to Trumpington and Grantchester.
We were delighted to be contacted by Sophie Moeng, Consultation Manager for Network Rail, who has recently provided an article for the Autumn 2020 issue of Queen Edith’s magazine, which you can read/download here. Sophie’s article is on pp4-6 of the magazine. Sophie has also sent Cambridge Area Bus Users an updated article, which we are pleased to publish, in full, below.
Cambridge South Infrastructure Enhancements Scheme
By Sophie Moeng Consultation Manager Network Rail | 1 Eversholt Street | London | NW1 2DN
On 22 June 2020 Network Rail announced the preferred location of the proposed new railway station south of Cambridge. The chosen location corresponds with the northern option presented to the public earlier this year and follows a review of engineering and design information together with the results of public consultation.
The new station is proposed to be located adjacent to Addenbrooke’s Bridge which carries the spur of the Guided Busway across the railway, and will provide a new transport choice for patients, visitors and employees when travelling to and from the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC).
The Scheme has evolved and enhancements to the nearby infrastructure to maintain service reliability have been identified. The infrastructure at Shepreth Branch Junction (where the lines from King’s Cross and Liverpool Street meet) and the southern section of tracks into Cambridge Station will be modified as part of the Scheme.
The station will also provide direct access to a range of potential routes on the rail network for people in South Cambridgeshire, and better connections across the southern fringe of the city. It is anticipated that the new station would be served by train services already running on the route.
Accessing the station
Many people who responded to the consultation earlier this year did not want vehicles accessing the station from the Hobson’s Park side. Road access is proposed to be via Francis Crick Avenue with vehicles using the Campus road network.
Similar to drivers dropping off patients at hospitals, it is anticipated that vehicles coming into the Campus to drop off passengers for the station would not be fined by the route enforcement system which is in place to prevent Francis Crick Avenue being used as a through route. Parking would be restricted to Blue Badge holders, station staff and maintenance vehicles. There will be pick-up and drop-off facilities for passengers and taxis.
The station and its facilities are expected to be operated by a train operating company who would also manage the parking facility.
New paths are proposed for pedestrians and cyclists from both sides of the railway, and the signals at the intersection with the Guided Busway and Francis Crick Avenue by the Green and the Gardens will need to be modified. Details of this are being worked through with the CBC estate management team and the County Council.
Bus interchange will be provided from the existing Guided Busway bus stops at the Circus. We’re engaging with Greater Cambridge Partnership on the Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) scheme on the east side – CSET proposes to provide stops on the segregated public transport lane on Francis Crick Avenue just south of the station access entrance and also modify the intersection to a much larger degree.
Cycle parking
Space for 1,000 cycles arranged on both sides of the railway is proposed and includes a variety of Sheffield stands, two-tier racks and parking for non-standard cycles. The precise location of the cycle stands will be finalised during detailed design.
At this present time, space for various facilities is being planned which will determine the footprint of the station buildings on each side of the railway. Proposals include a staffed station building with ticket vending machines, automatic ticket barriers, lifts and stairs to the connecting footbridge, a changing places facility, accessible toilets, a retail/catering unit, a waiting area and seating. There will be step-free access with two lifts on each platform covered by canopies.
Station facilities
On the east the station forecourt will accommodate a one-way vehicle route for cars and taxis to drop off and parking for Blue Badge Holders. Pedestrian access is provided towards the junction with Francis Crick Avenue and the Guided Busway and pedestrians from the South use an access path to the south of the station forecourt.
Tracks and platforms
The existing tracks of the West Anglia Main Line will be re-laid to allow an island platform to be installed. A loop on each side of the re-laid tracks will be installed with a single platform on the outer sides. Two platforms will serve northbound services (Down lines) and two will serve southbound services (Up lines) – see diagram.
Proposed arrangement of running lines and platforms at Cambridge South Station
Next steps
With the preferred location of the station selected, we will hold a second round of consultation this Autumn to seek views on our current designs, the access arrangements and the measures we need to implement to construct the project safely. We intend to submit an application for a Transport and Works Act Order to the Secretary of State for Transport in 2021 to support a funder target of the station opening in 2025.
From 14th September A2B are making a number of relatively minor changes to service 75 (Wrestlingworth/Orwell/Cambridge). But even minor timing alterations can sometimes mean the difference between catching and missing your bus!
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.
Major changes are coming to Stagecoach’s Busway services from 30th August. They’re different from the major developments announced last November but, for some passengers, no less significant.
Retained from that original plan is the switching of routes within the Cambridge city boundary: Busway A services will operate Trumpington Park & Ride/St Ives and travel via Shire Hall and Orchard Park (although inbound services will be diverting via CRC and the Science Park for the next year or so as a result of the Histon Road closure); Busway B services will operate Parkside/ Hinchingbrooke Hospital and go to Cambridge North, then out via the Science Park.
Each route will operate every 20 minutes – hourly on Sundays. The B will continue to operate an hourly service until late evening. As now, single deck vehicles will run on the A, and double deckers on the B.
The existing D and R services will be withdrawn (the R has already been suspended for several months).
All other existing Busway services are cancelled and replaced by non-Busway services. Busway-fitted vehicles will, in future, operate only on the Busway between St Ives Park & Ride and Marley Road or Hinchingbrooke Hospital, and between the two Busway sections within Cambridge.
“Feeder” services (or “rural connections”) will be provided by new services V1-V4 (serving, respectively, Ramsey, Chatteris, Somersham and Boxworth), operating a similar service to the existing “through” workings, but requiring passengers to change at St Ives. Would-be passengers should note that Stagecoach do NOT guarantee these connections. The V4 will be adding a number of St Ives/Fenstanton trips on Saturdays. There’s also a new service V5 providing a an early-morning service from Godmanchester and late-evening return journeys, but this is operated as an extension of existing B trips, and it’s not necessary to change buses.
Huntingdon/Peterborough journeys are replaced by a new hourly Mon-Sat service, 904, operating from St Ives and routed to Huntingdon via Houghton Clock Tower, but skipping the St Ives and Huntingdon estates (which continue to be served by route B).
Cambridge/Royston journeys are replaced by a new 915 service, mostly hourly, operating to/from Drummer Street, skipping the Railway Station and Biomedical Campus and travelling instead down Trumpington Road and Trumpington High Street (connect to an A at the Park & Ride for the “skipped” destinations).
Whippet are making a number of changes to their services, commencing 31st August.
X3: Sunday services will be reintroduced, and the route will benefit from a significant number of additional services, with buses operating hourly, even on Sunday. The X3 is rerouted in Cambridge to serve the Biomedical Campus and the Railway Station. (Note, though, that the main drop off stop in Cambridge City Centre is no longer Drummer Street Bus Station, but Queen’s College.) A number of journeys extend to/from Hartford in one direction and Thrapston and Corby in the other.
18: This service is replaced by the revised X3 (plus one journey from Corby operating as an X2).
400: There will be minor timing changes on this service, but Whippet haven’t released specific details at the time of writing.
478: A revised timetable means that the 478 and the X3 together provide a half-hourly frequency (Mon-Sat) between Godmanchester and Huntingdon.
X2: Whippet are also taking over commuter journeys from Papworth and Cambourne to the Biomedical Campus (formerly Stagecoach service H). This will operate as service X2 and will extend to/from the Railway Station.
Fenstanton: A number of X3 and 478 journeys operating to/from the Whippet depot will run “in service” to serve Fenstanton, providing a direct service between Fenstanton and Huntingdon for the first time in a number of years.
A new timetable leaflet covering all of the above (except the 400), and also including maps, is available to download from the Whippet website.
Whippet are proposing significant changes to services on routes X3 and 478 from 31st August. At the same time, they’re expecting to take over Stagecoach’s route H (Papworth to the Biomedical Campus and, in future, to Cambridge Railway Station).
On the X3, the proposed service will run hourly between Huntingdon and Addenbrooke’s, via Cambridge Railway Station, seven days a week. This will also provide new earlier and later journeys than the current X3, as well as the reintroduction of a Sunday service. Some buses will serve Oxmoor or Hinchingbrooke Hospital, and some will extend to/from Corby replacing the current route 18 following the same route to similar times. Route changes in Godmanchester and Cambridge will also be introduced.
Some journeys on service 478 will start or finish at Fenstanton routing via the A1307 between there and Godmanchester. Buses will follow the new X3 route in Godmanchester before continuing to Huntingdon and Hinchingbrooke hospital. Buses will generally run every hour Monday to Saturday. Between them, the 478 and X3 will provide a half-hourly frequency between Godmanchester and Huntingdon.
A new X2 service replaces Stagecoach’s route H providing links between Papworth, Cambourne, Trumpington, Addenbrooke’s and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Journeys will extend to Cambridge Railway Station before continuing as route X3 serving the rest of the City Centre.
Full details of the changes, including draft timetables, are on the Whippet website. Any feedback on the what’s proposed should be sent to Whippet, either by email: info@whippet.uk.com or by phone: 01954 230011 (office hours only).
Cambridge South station’s preferred location selected
Image: Network Rail Click the image for the full press release
Network Rail has identified the preferred location of the proposed new railway station for Cambridge South. The chosen location corresponds with Option 1 presented to the public earlier this year and follows a review of engineering and design information together with the results of public consultation.
Mark Taylor reported on this development in the Cambridge Independent on 22 June 2020 In addition to the material from the press release, there are additional quotes from South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne MP, Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner, and Cllr Lewis Herbert, leader of Cambridge City Council.
And why are Cambridge Area Bus Users posting about this?
Where is the mention of integrated transport?
A search for ‘bus’ in the press release found three instances: ‘adjacent to the Guided Busway’, ‘business’ and ‘business’.
In the Cambridge Independent there were two instances: ‘adjacent to the Guided Busway’ and ‘business’.
This will most likely be the railhead of preference for Queen Edith’s and Trumpington residents.
How easy will it be to change to/from busway and other services to/from trains and avoid using private cars and taxis?
As minimal car parking is currently planned for this station (we understand) will there be excess taxi and private vehicle kiss’n’ride movements?
If so, how will this impact upon bus services?
These questions need urgent answers from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor, James Palmer, from Network Rail, from the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Greater Cambridge Joint Planning (not the same organisation).
Temporary cycling and walking measures are being put in place across Cambridgeshire during the Coronavirus crisis to help people get out and socially distance during this pandemic.
Many of Cambridgeshire County Council’s schemes will be authorised under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order (ETRO) which will be in place for 18 months, of which the first six months are a consultation period.
Many of these schemes will have an impact upon bus services. Cambridge Area Bus Users hope that these will be mostly positive in creating routes that are less accessible by private care but remain accessible to buses and remove congestion. It is quite possible, however, that some schemes will adversely affect some bus services.
Cambridge Area Bus Users would like to hear from you about what is working well, and what is not.
This is not, however, the place for formal feedback on the temporary changes. You can give feedback either via email at: policyandregulation@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or in writing to: Policy and Regulation Team Highways Depot Stanton Way HUNTINGDON PE29 6PY
Residents along Stagecoach in Cambridge’s citi2 bus route hope that traffic-reduction measures on Cambridge’s notoriously-congested Mill Road could lead to a full restoration of services to Addenbrooke’s Hospital. We have a separate blogpost on that issue here, click through: Full service to Addenbrooke’s.
Could relief from traffic congestion in Cambridge’s Mill Road help improve bus services?
Temporary cycling and walking measures are being put in place along Cambridge’s Mill Road, during the Coronavirus crisis to help people get out and socially distance during this pandemic.
Work started on Wednesday, 24th June to widen footways using temporary barriers. Where footpaths have been widened, the road will be narrowed and there will only be sufficient carriageway width to allow one vehicle past at a time, so give-way features will be introduced at each section of widened footway.
Mill Road Bridge will be closed to all vehicles except buses and cyclists, the closure will be enforced by signs and automatic number plate recognition cameras.
There is a full report on these measures on the Mill Road Bridges community group website here – Wider footways, barriers and bridge closure. Click through to view the blogpost, which has links to videos, news reports and more. Cambridge Area Bus Users see no need to duplicate this.
Your secretary emailed Amber Clark, Marketing Officer, Stagecoach East, saying, inter alia:
I would […] like to raise a concern about the citi2.
You appear to have no plan to re-instate full through running of the citi2 to Addenbrooke’s. The current timetable, with alternate weekday, day-time, duties being short-turned at Brooks Road Sainsbury’s seems set to continue.
When, under Andy Campbell’s directorship, this service pattern was introduced, the reason was, we were told, that traffic congestion on Mill Road caused such delays that this was the only way to maintain viability.
The Cambridgeshire County Council’s Covid-19 roadworks on Mill Road, Cambridge, are likely to greatly reduce congestion, and local county councillors, for Petersfield and Romsey divisions respectively, Councillor Linda Jones and Councillor Noel Kavanagh lobbied assiduously to ensure that a mooted proposal to make Mill Road one-way was taken off the table, as this would have made it impossible for you to operate a service along Mill Road.
I would like to hope that you will look again at this service pattern, in the light of the county’s work on traffic restrictions in Mill Road and the priority for buses over Mill Road Bridge.
Secretary, Cambridge Area Bus Users
We received a very helpful reply to the effect that, if the hopped for congestion relief in Mill Road does occur, Stagecoach have promised to consider reinstating a full citi2 service to Addenbrooke’s.
The pattern of services provided across Cambridge, as a result of previous work and the impact of covid-19 on people’s travel habits, will no doubt evolve more over the next 12 to 18 months than it had done in the previous two decades, but this consideration will absolutely be borne in mind.
Amber Clark, Marketing Officer, Stagecoach East
Cambridge Area Bus Users would like to know your views on the citi2 we will be happy to pass these on to Stagecoach and to those responsible for disbursing Covid-related bus revenue support.
This is not, however, the place for formal feedback on the temporary changes. You can give feedback either via email at: policyandregulation@cambridgeshire.gov.uk or in writing to: Policy and Regulation Team Highways Depot Stanton Way HUNTINGDON PE29 6PY
Cambridge Area Bus Users 