Stagecoach are making changes to roughly half of their services operating in the Cambridge area with effect from Sunday 1st September – hence the length of this post. A fairly thorough description of these changes (as well as those further afield) can be found here (with links to the new timetables provided here) but you will find below a summary which might be useful (and which picks out a few changes not included in Stagecoach’s description). A number of the changes are linked to Cambridge’s persistent traffic congestion – which, with no remedy currently in view, is likely to get worse in the short term. Others benefit from support offered by the Combined Authority, through its Better Buses programme.

In some cases (the Busway and the 905 service) these will be the fourth timetables in operation since the beginning of 2024. However justified such frequent changes might be, they are certainly challenging for passengers to keep track of!

“Citi” branding seems to have been abandoned on Cambridge buses with the latest round of changes. But that’s not to say it couldn’t reappear at a later date…

Now to details of specific services:

1. Buses will cover Fulbourn in a single continuous loop, journeys from the city centre simply doing a clockwise look and then returning towards the city. This will impact departure times from Fulbourn village.

3. There are minor timetable adjustments. The last bus in both directions will operate a few minutes later, Monday-Saturday. Peak hour services will be calling at ARM on Fulbourn Road (eastbound journeys calling there in the morning, and citybound in the afternoon), but these calls are unlikely to appear in apps and other digital offerings.

4. This service reverts to its pre-pandemic frequency, with buses operating every 20 minutes, Monday-Saturday (excluding early morning and evening).

5. The whole of the Monday-Saturday timetable has been reorganised, resulting – amongst other things – in the first bus in both directions being 15 minutes earlier than previously. And the last buses are a full 35-40 minutes later, leading to a last bus from Emmanuel Street that departs at 2330. Service frequency is more or less unchanged, but fewer journeys will be operating to/from St Ives.

6. There’s to be a significant reduction in journeys on this route. Peak-hour journeys, Monday-Saturday, will now operate every 40 minutes (previously every 30) and off-peak every 70 (previously hourly). But there are minor exceptions to this, so be prepared. This sort of “staggered” frequency isn’t the easiest for passengers to get to grips with. Interpreting timetable departure sheets, where they exist, isn’t simple either (how useful is a statement saying “0945 and every 40 minutes” when you arrive at a stop at, say, 1235?). As a matter of historical record, it’s perhaps worth mentioning that less than 10 years ago there were three buses per hour along this route, even off-peak.

7. Changes to timings on this service include a number where longer journey times are allocated on schooldays to non-schooldays. Pampisford passengers will receive an earlier morning departure to Cambridge (Monday-Friday only) and two additional outbound services in the evening (Monday-Saturday). The last service out of Cambridge is 30 minutes later than at present (excluding Sundays). Conversely, the last bus into Cambridge from Sawston is half an hour earlier than in the current timetable.

X13. The main change to this service is the addition of five round trips (Monday-Friday only) between Addenbrookes and Linton (the first of which starts at Drummer Street Bus Station). There are also timing alterations – some journeys between the Haverhill and Cambridge bus stations are now scheduled to take over 90 minutes.

604 & 607. Timetables on both of these College services have been revised. Stagecoach are keen to point out that these services are open to everyone, and not just to students.

905. Some Monday-Friday departures have been retimed – mostly off-peak, but also a couple in the evening peak. Overall journey times haven’t changed (contrary to the impression given in Stagecoach’s announcement).

Busway. Just 16 weeks after they were introduced, services H and R are being withdrawn! This is the result of improvements to the remaining Busway routes A and B (see below).

A. Frequency on service A, Monday-Friday, is more or less doubled. Towards St Ives there will be services from Trumpington every 10 minutes until early evening. Services towards Trumpington mostly operate at the same 10-minute frequency, but there are a couple of 15-minute gaps to look out for. And the frequency declines after 1700. However… it’s important to note that half the trips begin/end at St Ives Park & Ride. Passengers to/from St Ives stops to the north of the Park & Ride retain the current service of three buses per hour (though not at the same times as at present). Sadly there is still no change to the dismal Sunday service (which remains at one per hour). Perhaps next time…?

B. In the morning peak, Monday-Friday, all B services from Hinchingbrooke will continue to some part of the Biomedical Campus, including Long Road Sixth Form College. In the afternoon peak – through to early evening – services in both directions will be serving the Campus. Check the timetable for specific details of which stops are served when. All these journeys travel via Hills Road, and don’t serve the Railway Station or use the southern section of the Busway (because of the height restriction). As a consequence, there will be fewer journeys from Drummer Street to Hinchingbrooke first thing in the morning, Monday-Friday, than at present.

PR1. An additional round trip on Saturday morning will operate, departing Madingley Road P&R at 0820 and Drummer Street at 0840.

PR3. There are additional late afternoon journeys, maintaining a 10-minute frequency outbound to Trumpington until 1855, and inbound from Trumpington until 1840 (both Monday-Friday). Between 1100 and 1500, Monday-Friday, all stops along the route will in future be served (but only between these times).

Thanks to funding from the Combined Authority, Whippet will be launching service 18a on Monday 2nd September. As the numbering might suggest, this is a variant of Whippet’s existing service 18 (Cambridge-Comberton-Cambourne-St Neots).

The 18a will add five journeys between Cambridge and Cambourne, and vice versa, although the first of the Cambridge-bound trips will start from St Neots, and operate only when schools are open.

Some journeys are timed to serve Comberton Village College at key times.

So what distinguishes service 18a from the existing service 18? The 18a doesn’t serve Grantchester and Kingston – for those villages you need to use the 18.

Like the 18, the 18a doesn’t run on Sundays.

The new timetable can be viewed and downloaded here

Stagecoach are introducing a new timetable on service 905 (Cambridge/Bedford) with effect from Sunday 2nd June. Peak-hour departure times from Cambridge (Monday to Friday) are revised, whilst journey times on Cambridge-bound services are being reduced by 5 minutes, with departure times all along the route changed accordingly. St Neots commuters, in particular, may wish to study the new timetable with care – it’s available for download from the Stagecoach website.

There are fairly major changes on service 26 between Cambridge and Royston. The route is being taken over by A2B and a completely new timetable introduced from Monday 3rd June. Amongst the features of this timetable:

• there are more services than currently operate;
• Fowlmere is no longer served, but [2 June update: a revised timetable has been issued since this post was written and a number of services will continue to serve Fowlmere]
• Shepreth and Meldreth receive one daily service in both directions and a number of journeys operate via Little Shelford;
• the morning commuter service into Cambridge city centre now arrives at 0745 instead of 0820;
• one northbound and two southbound services terminate at/originate from Trumpington Park & Ride, reintroducing a feature that applied for a few years in the 2010s;
• Two trips each day operate to/from Royston Tesco and Railway Station.

The new timetable is available here (courtesy of Hertfordshire County Council) and will be on the A2B website shortly.

Stagecoach are introducing a number of changes to its Busway services from Sunday 19th May (originally planned for 2nd June, but brought forward just yesterday).

Details of the changes can be found on the Stagecoach website. What follows is a summary.

A. It was only on 14th April that the weekday service on this route reverted to running four buses per hour. Now this decision is being reversed, and there will again be only three journeys per hour along the route between St Ives and Trumpington.

B. Seven journeys a day, Monday-Friday, will operate to and from Long Road Sixth Form College.

C. This service is being withdrawn – but its trips will be covered by extended journeys on service B (see above).

Although these changes result in a 10-minute weekday daytime frequency from St Ives to Cambridge, unfortunately that statement doesn’t apply in the opposite direction, where the service has the same number of buses but at less regular intervals.

H. Again, Stagecoach are partially reversing a change implemented last month and are reintroducing a service, now “numbered” H, between Trumpington and the Biomedical Campus. This will run during morning peak hours only, Monday-Friday.

And outside the weekday morning peak, there is…

R. This new service will operate between Trumpington, the Biomedical Campus, and the Railway Station, Monday-Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Again, this is a partial replacement for the “short” journeys on the A which were withdrawn in April.

The revised Busway timetable can be found here.

The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority has issued a contract to local operator A2B to operate additional journeys on the Cambridge-Ely-Littleport service 9. A recent post here had noted that Stagecoach will be cutting back on the number of journeys they operate on this route with effect from next Monday, 15 April. The Combined Authority has arranged for three additional services in both directions to be added to the timetable.

The Combined Authority announcement, which includes a complete list of departures for both operators, as well as ticketing arrangements, is available on its website.

Stagecoach are making changes to a significant proportion of their services in the Cambridge area from Sunday 14th April.

A booklet describing the changes is available here, and links to all of the new timetables are also available on the Stagecoach website.

A brief summary of the changes follows:

Citi 2. As previously reported, Citi 2 journeys towards Milton will additionally call at Parkside (the Busway stop). Timetable changes are also taking place – not for the first time in an attempt to improve punctuality.

Citi 3 and Citi 4. Timetable changes.

Citi 4A. This service is being withdrawn.

5. Additional stops will be served in Northstowe, as well as timetable changes introduced.

7. The number of afternoon services is being reduced, Monday to Friday, principally (but not exclusively) on services out of Cambridge. The number of afternoon/early evening trips to/from Saffron Walden remains unchanged, but they will operate at different times from the present timetable, and this impacts on Sawston/Pampisford journeys. Additional timetable changes are also being introduced.

8. The weekday service on this route is being recast, with the consequence that daytime trips will operate every 40 minutes (so 3 rather than 4 trips every 2 hours, a reduction of one quarter). This is a direct consequence of the increased journey times that are being introduced.

9/X9. As has been widely reported in the media, this service will be severely reduced – to just 3 trips in each direction on the 9, and one X9 between Littleport and Cambridge North. The Combined Authority is looking to provide additional services, but it is not certain how soon the tendering process will allow additional trips to be added to the route.

25. This service is being withdrawn.

A. The weekday service will comprise 4 trips per hour (instead of 3) between St Ives and Trumpington. However, the “shuttle” service between Trumpington and the Biomedical Campus is being withdrawn, so there’s a reduction in frequency on that section. The first journey of the day from St Ives (Monday-Saturday only) will depart at 0430.

F. This service is being withdrawn.

PR3. Two additional weekday early morning services will operate from Trumpington Park & Ride (at 0700 and 0715).

PR4. This service will see a reduction in frequency, linked to timetable changes. An additional weekday early morning service will depart Babraham Park & Ride at 0641. Sunday services are unchanged.

Haverhill services (13/13A/X13/131/131A). Barely 18 months since Haverhill services were recast there’s going to be something of an about turn. The Haverhill town services (131/131A) are being withdrawn and routes around Haverhill on the remaining services altered to cover most of the communities whom these served (as was the case before the 131/131A were introduced). The journey time between Haverhill Sainsburys to the Haverhill Bus Station is effectively doubled on most journeys although, to partly compensate for the increased overall journey times between Cambridge and Haverhill Bus Station, the number of trips on the more direct X13 is being increased. There is a full explanation, with maps, in the Stagecoach booklet.

With the reopening of the southern section of the Busway in both directions, Whippet (in association with the University) are making changes to services U1 and U2, taking effect from Monday 1st April.

In the Grange Road area the routes are being switched, so that the U1 will now serve Selwyn College and Barton Road stops, whilst the U2 will revert to the original Universal route down West Road.

Service U1 will use the Busway in both directions between the Railway Station and the Biomedical Campus. Service U2 will be routed via Hills Road.

The new timetable can be downloaded from the Whippet website.