Changes to Whippet rural routes from 2nd December

Whippet are making changes – some major, some minor – to their rural routes from Monday 2nd December.

The main change of relevance to the immediate Cambridge area is to the combined X2/X3 operation. On weekdays an additional hourly service will be added to the timetable between Huntingdon and Cambridge City Centre (not continuing towards the Railway Station and Biomedical Campus), thereby providing a half-hourly frequency throughout most of the day. And there’s an additional X2 departure from Emmanuel Street at 1845, heading to Huntingdon via Addenbrooke’s. There are consequential changes to most departure times, so it will be important to check the new timetable for specific information you might require.

On service 18 there are a couple of minor punctuality-related changes. And, further from Cambridge, an improved frequency, plus additional more minor alterations, on the 66 (St Neots/Huntingdon).

Further information, and links to all of the new timetables, is available on the Whippet website.

Busway B changes from Sunday 3rd November

Busway users need to brace themselves for yet more changes – this will be the fifth Busway timetable to operate in 2024 alone – coming into operation next Sunday, November 3rd, just nine weeks after the previous set. The latest revisions apply only to the Monday to Friday B service, so users of the A need read no further.

There will be a significant reduction in the number of journeys operating between Cambridge City Centre and the Biomedical Campus and/or Long Road 6th Form College. The number of southbound trips along this section of the route is being reduced from thirteen to just five. Northbound journeys are reduced from the current thirteen to four. It’s worth remembering that this southern stretch is served only during peak hours.

But there is better news for passengers between St Ives and Cambridge City Centre. There will be an additional five journeys overall in each direction between the Park & Ride and Drummer Street.

There are also changes to departure times of many services along the whole of route B.

Stagecoach’s announcement notes the significant congestion impacting journey times between the city and the Biomedical Campus. With little immediate (or medium-term) prospect of anything changing in this regard, prospects for the future in this regard look bleak.

A copy of the new timetable is available from the Stagecoach website.

September Bus Changes

Two steps forward; one step back?

There is much to welcome in the September changes to bus services in and around Cambridge announced by Stagecoach and Whippet – Stagecoach changes from Sunday 1st September, New Whippet service 18a from 2nd September – with increasing funding from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

However…

Some services are being ‘rationalised’ (Stagecoach’s citi1 in Fulbourn) others have longer journey times (citi7) or reduced frequency (citi6) whilst others have, currently, no prospect of returning to pre-Covid frequency levels (citi2 every 20 mins, 10 mins pre-Covid).

And the elephant in the room (or on the streets)? Traffic congestion

Cambridge Area Bus Users recognise that commercial bus companies cannot run services at a loss. Adding extra buses to maintain frequencies adds costs, without any certainty of increased farebox revenue. Unless our plethora of overlapping local governance bodies (see graphic, below) take radical action to tackle traffic congestion bus services will be in a spiral of decline: reduced speeds ➞ increased costs ➞ lower ridership ➞ reduced income ➞ service reductions ➞ lower ridership ➞ reduced income ➞ further service reductions.

Venn diagram giving visual representation to the overlapping responsibilities of district, unitary and county councils with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and Greater Cambridge Partnership

Tackling traffic congestion: the need for bold action

In February 2024 sister organisation Cambridgeshire Sustainable Travel Alliance issued a press release – We will all lose out if the Greater Cambridge Partnership abandons large-scale projects to reduce congestion.

The current high motor traffic levels are hinted at as the reason for abandoning the road reclassification project. The Eastern Access project, Hills Road and Madingley Road schemes are also being watered down due to the need to accommodate large numbers of cars. It is highly inequitable that projects to encourage people to use sustainable transport and reduce car usage cannot go ahead or are compromised because there are currently too many people driving. Many people who drive would like to travel by sustainable means, but cannot. When GCP officers assessed the threats and opportunities of not proceeding with the Sustainable Travel Zone road charge last September, they did not mention that abandoning road charging would leave them unable to deliver other GCP projects. In hindsight, this is a significant omission.
CSTA press release as above

Silviya Barrett from national transport charity Campaign for Better Transport (a member organisation of the Cambridgeshire Sustaianble Travel Alliance) said:

“The only way to tackle congestion is to reduce the number of cars on the roads. Traffic reduction measures, coupled with public transport improvements have been proven to cut congestion, reduce air pollution and make places more pleasant to work and live.”

Cambridge Area Bus Users has received multiple complaints about unreliable bus services; one member reported walking from the city centre to the Catholic Church faster than five buses crawling along in road congestion. The group cannot envisage significant improvements in bus reliability until congestion is tackled by reallocating road space away from private cars to buses and active travel.

And the bus operators’ view?

We contacted David Boden, Business Development Director of Stagecoach East, Chair of the recently-formed Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Bus Alliance, who was kind enough to provide the following statement.

As people who run local buses, we tend to talk about two connected but different concepts: ‘reliability’ and ‘punctuality’. We are very willing to be held accountable for the aspects of reliability we can control – that is to say, providing a bus and a driver when we say we will. But, once the bus leaves the station or depot, its punctuality is overwhelmingly dictated by issues like congestion, parking enforcement and roadworks, none of which are in our power to change.

All this slows the bus down, increases journey times and the cost of service provision, and makes it really difficult to rebalance using the bus over car. There is no secret formula to all this, put simply, if you want a world-class bus network, you need a world-class road network and bus infrastructure.

Our local authorities work very hard to try to mitigate the negative effects of roadworks where they can, but there are sadly limits to their powers. Now is the time for everyone, including the utility companies, Highways and other key stakeholders, to engage with bus operators directly in a meaningful and productive way.

Buses are a key lifeline for our region, and with a genuine desire from everyone to go that extra mile in minimising disruption to bus services, we can offer the residents of Cambridgeshire the excellent service that we all want them to have.

It is a burning issue. Bus services are not going to get any better – and will continue to get worse – until we have those conversations, and elected officials then are willing to make bold and difficult decisions. [Our emphasis]

I will say that, in recent times, we have seen some elements of progress. We recently praised the communication from UK Power Networks for their Mill Road works, for example. They gave us proper notice and this led to high-level discussions between the two companies, with potential ways to keep disruption to a minimum, floated.

We hope that this will set a template for all such interactions in the future, so it becomes ‘business as usual’ that utility companies talk with the major bus operators so we can all work together as best we can.
David Boden, Business Development Director of Stagecoach East, Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Bus Alliance

Ian Lockwood, a recognized national leader in sustainable transportation policy (USA) and urban design (and witty cartoonist) sums up the situation, neatly.

Cartoon two parents and child in front of large car
THERE IS TOO MUCH TRAFFIC
FOR BILLY TO WALK TO SCHOOL:
SO WE DRIVE HIM.

Traffic Inducing Traffic

We recognise that funding for comprehensive, fast, frequent bus services cannot rely on farebox revenue alone. Support from the public purse is also essential. That public purse is not inexhaustible; plans for radical improvements to bus services envisaged by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (our Transport Authority) could founder unless Cambridgeshire County Council (our Highway Authority) and the Greater Cambridge Partnership (holder of the ‘City Deal’ purse strings) “are willing to make bold and difficult decisions“.

Stagecoach changes from Sunday 1st September

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).

New Whippet service 18a from 2nd September

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

Queen Edith’s Roadworks: Bus Diversions 8 July – 9 August

Significant diversions for citi 1 & citi 2

Cambridge Area Bus Users note, from Causeway one.network, that a road closure has been granted for Cadent Gas from Mon 08/07/24 on Queen Edith’s Way, Cambridge between the Fendon Road roundabout and Wulfstan Way. As a result Stagecoach’s citi1/citi2 will be on diversionary routes.

map showing road closure from Fendon Road roundabout to Wulfstan Way — Closure from Fendon Road roundabout to Wulfstan Way

Stagecoach have posted a service update. Following contact with their Cowley Road staff, we can conform these diversionary routes:

citi 1 be using Mowbray Road (A1134), Cherry Hinton Road, Wulfstan Road and Queen Edith’s Way between Fendon Road and Cherry Hinton High Street (Robin Hood junction)
citi 2 will be using Mowbray Road (A1134) and Cherry Hinton Road between Fendon Road and Walpole Road

The map, below, should help make these diversions clearer.

Non-interactive map showing diversions as described above. — Click the image to view a larger version in a new tab

Beehive Centre Planning Update

Note that this planning application includes a number of bus service enhancement proposals.

poster text as accompanying text in this post — Click the image to download a printable PDF

Nick Vose, Director, Marengo Communication, writes:

We are pleased to provide you with an update on Railpen’s proposals for the Beehive Centre.

As you will be aware, we first submitted plans last year, including proposals for new retail, leisure, and community space, as well as laboratory, workspace, and green public space.

However, following feedback on the plans we decided to come back to you with revised designs.

The key uses proposed for the site remain the same, but we have reduced the height and massing of a number of buildings and adjusted building footprints and locations to increase separation distances between buildings and our neighbours.

A new park roughly the same size as St Matthew’s Piece has been introduced and we will plant even more trees (275 in total).

There is also a new direct cycle/pedestrian route through the site and Coldham’s Lane Roundabout will be upgraded to a four-way signalised junction, creating safer connections for pedestrians and cyclists.

Around 20 new shops and leisure facilities, including a small supermarket and gym are included on the ground floor. This is in addition to our plan to invest in Cambridge Retail Park which is also moving forward and will support the re-location of several retailers from the Beehive Centre. The development will also fund an additional 15 public buses per hour with a service extension to the train station, a new service to Milton Park & Ride, as well as new direct services to Cambourne and St Neots, Huntington and St Ives, Ely and Waterbeach. More than 4,200 cycle parking spaces will be created, and 460 car parking spaces – a third of which will provide electric vehicle (EV) charging.

Finally, in response to earlier feedback, we are also looking carefully at how our proposals can help reduce urban temperatures. We know that green spaces, trees, green roofs and vegetation are all very helpful as natural cooling measures and we are planning to replace large areas of concrete with new landscaping, 275 new trees, rain gardens, permeable surfaces and green roofs. In addition, we have committed to undertaking an Urban Greening Factor assessment to evaluate the quality and quantity of green space provided. More commonly used in London this voluntary assessment will demonstrate how green infrastructure has been integral in the design of the development. Several other design choices will also be taken, including carefully selected materials with a higher albedo, which is the metric for how much incoming sun is reflected by a material surface.

We are still listening and are now inviting residents and stakeholders to comment on these revised plans before we submit an amended planning application.

You can find out more about our updated plans on the 17, 18 and 19 July.

Wednesday 17^th July 2024, 12pm – 4pm
ScS – Unit 11 (next to Nando’s), Cambridge Retail Park, Newmarket Road, CB5 8JG

Thursday 18^th July 2024, 4pm – 7.30pm
ScS – Unit 11 (next to Nando’s), Cambridge Retail Park, Newmarket Road, CB5 8JG

Friday 19 July 2024, 12 noon
Online webinar: Register here: Beehive Centre Update – Online Webinar Registration

We are also holding a further event for adjacent neighbours on Wednesday 17 July between 6pm and 7.30pm. This event will also be held in the ScS and a separate letter has been sent via the Royal Mail.

Further details of our events are enclosed in the attached community flyer – which has been sent this week to over 6,000 local residents – and we have prepared a social media friendly graphic, also attached, which we are asking stakeholders to share via their own social media channels.

We look forward to talking you through the latest proposals.

Best regards,
Nick
For and on behalf of Railpen

Changes to 905 (2nd June) and 26 (3rd June)

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.

Busway changes from Sunday 19th May

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.

Cambridge-Ely-Littleport – an update

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.