It’s unfortunate that a number of the area’s major visitor attractions are either difficult or impossible to access by public transport. Over the years a number of attempts have been made to address this, and here – for a limited period only at this stage – is another one.

The Welney Wetland Centre – thanks to a grant from Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Improvement Fund – is providing two journeys a day from Ely railway station, operating on Tuesdays and Saturdays only until the end of November. Not only is the bus free to use, but the WWC is also offering a 10% discount in its shop and cafe to those who have arrived by bus.

Departures are at 11.00 and 12.00 from Ely, and visitors get just over 3 hours at the Centre before having to catch their return service.

Minibuses are provided by FACT Community Transport.

One CABU member who travelled on the 11.00 on its first day of operation earlier this week summed up the experience as “an excellent service leading to an enjoyable day out”. The period of operation should make it ideal for those wishing to catch migratory birds as they arrive at Welney – swans in particular, of course.

Bookings are advised – those who have booked in advance are guaranteed seats, whereas those who just turn up on the day may be disappointed.

More background about the service is available from the Welney Wetland Centre website.

Bookings and practical information are available here.

A number of changes are being introduced to services in the Cambridge area from 31st August.

Withdrawn services

Stagecoach College services 604, 606 and 607 are being withdrawn. As is the X9 (Cambridge-Littleport direct).

Other changes, in service order (regardless of operator)

Stagecoach 1. The 0747 Saturday journey from Fulbourn Tesco to Arbury is withdrawn.

Stagecoach 7. Following the cancellation of service 607, on schooldays the 0730 from Drummer Street and the 1503 from Pampisford will call additionally at Sawston Village College.

Stagecoach 8A. Frequency on this route is being reduced to hourly, providing just 12 trips a day against the current 24. The first inbound and last outbound trips will operate from/to Rampton. These provide a faster journey time than the Rampton journeys on service 8, and will operate in Histon via the B1049 (providing Mill Lane and Orchard Road with their first buses in some time), and in Cottenham via the village green and Rampton Road.

A2B/Stagecoach 9. Stagecoach are withdrawing from the Cambridge-Ely-Littleport service. A2B will be the sole operator on this route, but the timetable is largely unchanged – except that the first departure from Cambridge will be at 0825 and run only as far as Ely, and the last departure on Saturdays, whilst leaving Cambridge at the same time as at present, runs faster. So if you need to board at an intermediate stop, please check the timetable carefully.

A2B 9A (Ely City). The first and last journeys will both be 35 minutes later than at present, and the 1145 departure wil cease to operate.

Stagecoach 13/13A/X13. Peak-hour journeys will serve the Babraham Institute in both directions. This means that departure times at subsequent stops will be 2 minutes later than at present.

A2B 17. Hertfordshire County Council report that there will be minor changes to this service, partly in response to a request from Melbourn Village College and partly as a result of long-term roadworks and increased traffic. At the time of writing no further information is available about these.

Revised timetables:

For Stagecoach services 1, 7, 8A and 13/13A/X13 revised timetables are available for download from the Stagecoach website. The new timetable for the 9 to/from Ely and Littleport is available at bustimes.org. The revised timetable for the 9A is also available at bustimes.org. The revised timetable for A2B’s service 17 doesn’t seem to be available at time of writing.

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.

There are significant changes coming from Monday 30th June on the Royston corridor and surrounding services.

First to the service numbers themselves:

• Current service 17 (Guilden Morden-Bassingbourn-Royston) is extended north from Royston.
• Current service 31 (Fowlmere-Cambridge, plus one daily trip to/from Barley) is being replaced and will in future form part of service 17.

As for the services to be operated:

• All Cambridge journeys on routes 26 and 17 operate to/from Drummer Street Bus Station. Changing buses at Addenbrooke’s or Trumpington Park & Ride will no longer be required.
• There will be more services along the main Royston-Cambridge corridor, with earlier northbound and later southbound services than at present – the first weekday bus leaving Royston at 0537 and the last from Cambridge at 1915. [Corrected 27/6/25: the 1915 operates only to Melbourn. In fact, the last bus to Royston is earlier than under the current timetable, 1800 Mon-Fri and 1730 Sat.]
• Villages between Guilden Morden and Royston will have a number of services operating to/from Cambridge (precise numbers differ, depending on direction and day of the week).
• Royston and Melbourn will have more services to/from Cambridge, whereas Little Shelford and Thriplow will have fewer services coming through their villages (with Thriplow particularly affected – down to just one per day).
• All services will in future be operated by A2B Travel Group.

These aren’t the easiest changes to explain in written form, and no amount of text can cover all of the changes involved. If you have any interest in the places currently served by routes 17, 26 and/or 31, then please consult the new timetable.

Thanks to Intalink (Hertfordshire County Council) and Foxton Parish Council for making information available in advance on these changes.

The first of the autonomous bus trials is now open for public use, until March 2026. This Greater Cambridge Partnership Connector project will eventually see autonmous buses on trial in three locations – the first to become available for public use operates to and from Madingley Road Park & Ride, taking in Eddington and West Cambridge. The pilot service is free and the project will be using 15-seater minibuses.

There are four peak-hour round trips each morning and afternoon, Monday to Friday. Total journey time around the loop is 18 minutes.

There will always be a driver on board (provided by Whippet).

To view the timetable and to find out more about this project, go to the GCP’s Connector page.

Stagecoach are making further changes to their 905 service (Cambridge-St Neots-Bedford). In addition to improving reliability, the changes are also intended to “enhance evening and Sunday connections with Service X5”.

The revised timetable, at time of writing, is temporarily missing from the Stagecoach website and from alternatives such as Traveline and Bustimes.org. Check back nearer the time. is available here.

A number of new services are being introduced by the Combined Authority (CPCA) with effect from Tuesday 27th May. Contracts have been let to a number of operators.

The immediate Cambridge area will be served by five of the seven new routes.

The CPCA is using its “Tiger” branding for these routes, but passengers will probably be relieved to know that the service numbers will abbreviate this to “T”.

All services operate Monday-Saturday, excluding Bank Holidays.

T1. Operated by Whippet. This is described as a “Cambridge to Huntingdon Express”, although it’s no faster than Whippet’s existing X3. The route follows that of the Stagecoach Busway B (excluding the diversion into Cambridge North tation) as far as Swavesey, then cuts across to Fenstanton and direct to Huntingdon Rail Station. Journeys towards Cambridge also serve Huntingdon Bus Station.

T2. Operated by Stagecoach. This service essentially forms a semicircular route around northern Cambridge, from Newmarket Park & Ride to Madingley Road Park & Ride, via Milton Park & Ride, Impington, Histon and Huntingdon roads Cambridge, and Eddington.

T3. Operated by Stagecoach. The end points of this route are the Ida Darwin Hospital and Grantchester. Amongst the places served along the way are Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Babraham Road Park & Ride, Great Shelford and Trumpington Park & Ride.

T4. Operated by Stagecoach. This one adds to the number of places with direct buses to Addenbrooke’s Hospital. From the Biomedical Campus it serves Fulbourn, the Wilbrahams and Bottisham, continuing to Newmarket mostly along the route already served by Stephenson’s service 11.

T5. Operated by A2B. This service finally reinstates Soham’s direct link with Cambridge (or vice versa, perhaps?). Appropriately it follows the route of the former Cambus service 122 – in more recent times this is the route of Stephenson’s service 11 between Cambridge and Burwell, then continuing to Fordham and Soham.

(For the sake of completeness, the other two new Tiger services being launched on 27th May are the T7 – Chatteris to Wisbech – and the T12 – Longstanton P&R to Sutton.)

More information about these Tiger services (but not timetables – or even links to them) is available from the CPCA website.

Timetables are available from the respective operator’s websites:

• https://www.whippetbus.co.uk/times/
• Live Bus Times & Timetables | Stagecoach
• https://www.a2bbusandcoach.com/bus-timetables

In addition, all of the timetable data (including specific stops served) can easily be accessed at other sites, such as bustimes.org.

Stagecoach are introducing changes to Busway services from Sunday 20th April.

The principal change concerns Sunday services during the main part of the day on the “core” section of Busway between St Ives Park & Ride and Cambridge city centre.

Whilst journeys to and from Hinchingbrooke Hospital and Trumpington Park and Ride remain unchanged, the service will now be rounded out with two “A” trips in each direction every hour between St Ives Park and Ride and Cambridge city centre in place of the current single trip on route “B”. The structure of the resulting timetable means that these four buses an hour will be evenly spaced on this “core” section. It’s goodbye to the half-hour gap between buses during the main daytime period.

Additional changes Iapplying all week) involve rerouting of northbound “A” buses to avoid the frequently-congested Gonville Place. So Parkside will no longer be served. There’s also a route change at the northern end of the route in St Ives.

And there will be only two journeys per hour, Monday-Friday, between St Ives Park & Ride and Marley Road, in place of the current three.

There are minor changes to peak-hour weekday timings on route “B”.

Finally, on service 5, the 1730 from Cambridge will no longer operate along the Busway and will terminate at Longstanton Park & Ride.

Further information can be found on the Stagecoach website, which also provides links to the new timetables for all three services.

Whippet are revising the timetables on all their routes from Monday 3rd March.

In all cases there are minor changes to (try to) improve punctuality. But there are also some more significant changes, as noted below.

18A, 66, X3. Additional buses will operate on Saturdays, thanks to funding from the Combined Authority.

X3. Peak time services starting or ending at Papworth Everard will also serve Hilton and Fenstanton.

More details, and links to the new timetables, are available from the Whippet website.

Stagecoach are making minor changes to services 1 (Arbury/Fulbourn), 3 (Fison Road/Cherry Hinton), 4 (Cambridge/Cambourne), 905 (Cambridge/St Neots/Bedford) and PR1 (Madingley Road Park & Ride) from Sunday 23rd February. They form part of a larger series of such changes being introduced across Stagecoach East from that date.

The usual booklet is available on the Stagecoach website giving more information (not that there’s much to say on this occasion). And the new timetables can be downloaded as well.