Whippet are introducing a number of changes on routes 66, X2 and X3 from next Sunday, 6th September. In the case of routes 66 and X3 this includes ADDITIONAL SERVICES!

There are minor changes to improve punctuality on route 66, Monday-Friday only. And on Sundays there’s an additional service in each direction, Fenstanton-Godmanchester.

The new X2 timetable has been modified to allow for journeys during school terms taking longer than during the holidays. Or being quicker during school holidays, depending how you view these things.

Changes to help with punctuality are also being introduced on the X3, Monday-Friday. But on Sundays, there’s a doubling of services between Cambourne and Cambridge, with buses running every 30 minutes during the day. There’s also one additional Huntingdon-Cambridge journey.

Further details and links to the new timetable for each service are available from the Whippet website.

Minor changes are coming up on Whippet’s Universal services and on the Stagecoach T3.

On 30th August, the summer service on Whippet’s Universal services U1 and U2 comes to an end. A slightly-revised version of the previous timetable, with minor changes to most peak-time journeys, will operate from 31st August. The new timetables can be found here.

From 1st September, Stagecoach service T3 will be rerouted in the Great Shelford/Stapleford area. It will no longer use Station Road in Great Shelford (and will avoid the problems that the station level crossing can cause). Instead, buses from Grantchester will continue down London Road (calling at the Granta Terrace stop), before turning left to serve the stops at St Andrew’s Church and The Limes on Mingle Lane. On rejoining Hinton Way the existing route remains unchanged. In the reverse direction, buses will turn left from Hinton Way into Mingle Lane, and then proceed via St Andrew’s Church to London Road.

The new timetable isn’t available for download from the Stagecoach website at the time of writing (25th August), but is available for consultation at Traveline. Changes to timings are slight.

For 10 weeks during last winter, Stagecoach ran buses following Cambridge United’s weekday home matches to get spectators back to Newmarket Road Park & Ride.

Happily, Stagecoach have confirmed to us that these journeys will continue for the 2026-27 season. Buses leave from outside the Cledara Abbey Stadium at 2130 and 2200 and operate as service PR2F. There are also services in the opposite direction at 2120 and 2150.

Service 32 (that’s the one that operates in the Cambridge area – not to be confused with the March-Ramsey service) reaches the end of the road this weekend. If you’ve never heard of it – and many haven’t, no doubt – this is a route that’s been operated by A2B since 2019, and which provides a round trip to and from Trumpington Park & Ride, via Hauxton, Little Shelford and Harston. There are five morning rush-hour journeys, and five in the evening rush hour. Unusually, it runs seven days a week, the only difference being that the morning journeys start two hours later. The last day of operation will be this Sunday, 12th July.

From Monday 13th July the Combined Authority’s “Tiger on Demand” operation (the local branding for this area’s Demand Responsive Transport) is being extended to cover not just the villages currently servcd by service 32, but a whole host of additional South Cambridgeshire communities. This replacement doesn’t operate on Sundays, however.

For more information on this extension to the Tiger on Demand network, see the Combined Authority’s announcement.

A quick reminder that the Annual General Meeting of Cambridge Area Bus Users is booked for Saturday 11 July 2026 at 14:45. In the Great Western Room, The Signal Box Centre, 82 Glenalmond Avenue, Cambridge, CB2 8DB

The Signal Box Centre is a 7-minute walk along the guided busway from Cambridge station. The following buses stop on Station Place: Citi1, Citi3, Citi7, A, PR4, U1, U2, X2, X3.

The closest car parking locations are eight pay and display bays, on Clarendon Road and twelve on Shaftesbury Road. The NCP car park at the Cambridge Leisure Park off Cherry Hinton Road is a 10-minute walk away. If you display a current blue badge you can park on site, but the centre asks that you avoid numbered bays where possible as these are allocated to specific properties.

Formal notice of the Annual General Meeting was sent, by email, on Thursday 25^th June 2026.

To read the agenda and other details click here to read the email in your web-browser

Formal notice of the Annual General Meeting was sent, by email, on Thursday 25^th June 2026.

To read the agenda and other details click here to read the email in your web-browser.

Between 29 June and 30 August, Whippet will be running a revised timetable on its Universal routes, U1 and U2. And the reason for this summer timetable? The operator is taking advantage of reduced traffic congestion during the summer months to speed up journey times. Yes, if you can reduce congestion on the roads, then buses will run faster and more people will get more quickly to their destinations. Enjoy it while it lasts!

The Universal summer timetable can be downloaded here.

Postscript

The effect of congestion on bus services was succinctly explained to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Transport Committee…

I can give you a good example from Professor David Begg who calculated for London [TfL buses] that the shortfall between revenue and cost was roughly equivalent to the cost of congestion.

That is to say if you removed the congestion, you would do what 9,000 buses currently do with about 5,000 buses […] Because they would move more quickly, the service would be more attractive, more people would use them […]

And I can’t highlight enough that […] one of the reasons why there is a decline […] But a key one is the unattractiveness of the speed of the service, because in some urban areas, frankly, bus speeds drop below walking pace, because when you get down to four miles an hour, you can walk it anyway and, secondly, it’s unattractive and people are making other sorts of journeys and doing things differently.

So bus priority and bus speeds is a key element in making the service more attractive […] in […] areas where the bus gets priority […] the beautiful sight of the bus running up the inside of a lane of stationary cars is not lost on the occupants of the cars […]

[Leon Daniels OBE, presenting the Independent Review of Implementation Pathways for Bus Franchising Scheme to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Transport Committee, 17 June 2026]

View the Agenda reports pack for full details of the report. The webcast of the meeting can be found on the Transport Committee, 17 June 2026 page. Leon Daniels speaks on the subject of congestion from around 3hr 16 min.

The County Council is making a series of safety improvements along the Guided Busway, and this rolling programme of work impacts on Busway services, timetables, timekeeping, frequency, and occupancy of the buses.

The purpose of this post is not to detail actual changes to services, but to gather together the sources of information that might help you in planning any journey that involves the Guided Busway.

The County Council website has a page explaining the background to the work and giving details of progress and future plans. That information can be found here:

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/public-transport-park-and-ride-and-guided-busway/guided-busway-improvements

Since November, the County Council has also published a newsletter detailing the most recent progress and immediate future plans. As well as being on the web at the address above, it’s also possible to have those newsletters sent by email. To subscribe, simply follow this link:

https://assets-gbr.mkt.dynamics.com/6a4d3abe-5645-4264-a39d-88f8d2e54cb8/digitalassets/standaloneforms/88f314d9-fcbe-f011-bbd3-000d3a0b1499

For information as to how this work impacts on services – and, in particular, timetable information and news of diversions that result from the work – the operators’ websites are the place to go.

Stagecoach service updates page: https://www.stagecoachbus.com/regional-service-updates/east/cambridge-city

Whippet service updates page: https://www.whippetbus.co.uk/service-updates/

There are a significant number of changes to bus services from Sunday 31st May (which means, for some services, the first day of operation in June). Some of these are changes that Stagecoach had originally planned to introduce back in January, but whose introduction was postponed.

The changes principally affect those in and around Cambridge, St Ives and St Neots. Most are relatively minor in their impact.

The list below is in service number order, regardless of operator.

1 (Stagecoach). There are timetable adjustments for journeys towards Fulbourn. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

4 (Stagecoach). During peak hours, Monday-Friday, a small number of services are diverted via Bourn Quarter. Note, though, that these additional stops may not appear in some timetable data, pending the registration of these stops in the national database. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

5A. There is a change of operator on this service. In future it will be operated by Stephensons of Essex . Two services in each direction are extended to serve St Ives Morrisons. [LINK TO NEW STEPHENSONS TIMETABLE]

6 (Stagecoach). This service is moving stop in Emmanuel Street, and will in future depart from stop E4. As a result, the 0840 (Monday-Saturday) departure is retimed to leave at 0845. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

7 (Stagecoach). This route will see an additional departure from Sawston at 0822 (Monday-Friday), as well as timing adjustments on the 1503 from Pampisford. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

8 (Cambridge-Papworth Everard service). There is a change of operator on this service. In future it will be operated by Stephensons of Essex . An 0750 Bar Hill-Papworth journey has been added to the timetable. [LINK TO NEW STEPHENSON TIMETABLE]

8A (Stagecoach). This service will be departing from Emmanuel Street, stop E5 (which is the stop also used by Stagecoach service 8). As a result it will have to travel via St Andrew’s Street, Park Terrace and Parker Street in order to reach Emmanuel Road. No other changes are being made to the timetable. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

13/13A/X13 (Stagecoach). Some adjustments are being made to the timetable to improve punctuality. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

19A (A2B – whose timetable refers to it as service 19). As you may have seen reported elsewhere, the Combined Authority has withdrawn funding for this service and the last day of operation will be Friday 5th June. Most of the route is covered by Central Connect service 100. [LINK TO CENTRAL CONNECT SERVICE 100 TIMETABLE]

46A (Star Cabs). This Tuesday-only service between Haverhill and Newmarket via Linton and other villages along the way was initially reported to have been cancelled. But it has been retendered by the Combined Authority (as this is a CPCA-supported service, even though both start and end points are in Suffolk) and Star Cabs will continue to operate it. [LINK TO TIMETABLE]

61. Another change of operator and another that will be operated by Stephensons of Essex . There are no changes to the timetable. [LINK TO STEPHENSONS TIMETABLE]

67 (Central Connect). This service has been withdrawn. See also service 69 below.

68 (Central Connect). This has been renumbered as service 69, to be operated by Stephensons of Essex.

69 (Stephensons of Essex – new service). This replaces former Central Connect service 68, retains the Boxworth-St Ives timetable, and adds one return trip per day between St Ives and Eynesbury (thus partly – but only to a very limited extent – making up for the loss of service 67). [LINK TO TIMETABLE]

905 (Stagecoach). There are changes to the timings on virtually all journeys on this route (many simply removing some rather generous allowances between stops). And there are additional trips during the afternoon peak (Monday-Friday). [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

PR1 (Stagecoach – Madingley Park & Ride). Saturday timings are changing in order to improve punctuality. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

PR2 (Stagecoach – Newmarket Park & Ride). Again, there are timetable changes in order to improve punctuality. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

PR5 (Stagecoach – Milton Lark & Ride). Buses will no longer enter the Science Park site; instead they will call at the Science Park stops on Milton Road. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

T4 (Stagecoach). The 0850 from Addenbrooke’s will leave at 0840. [LINK TO NEW TIMETABLE]

A revised timetable is due to be introduced on Stephenson’s service 112 (Ely-Soham-Newmarket) from Saturday 2nd May.

There are significant changes at the beginning and end of the day in both directions. Towards Newmarket, the first bus on weekdays now starts from Soham, and no longer operates between Ely and Soham. On Saturdays, the first service of the day no longer operates, and the next two start from Soham. This means that the first bus from Ely to Newmarket will be at 0620 (Monday-Friday) and 0900 (Saturday). The last departure from Newmarket to Ely is being brought forwards (to 1808 on weekdays, 1708 on Saturdays). The final service of the day from Newmarket will also be earlier than at present (1905 Monday-Friday, 1808 Saturday), and operates only as far as Soham.

In addition, there are minor timing changes to virtually all journeys in both directions. But one of the changes is for off-peak journeys to depart on the hour in both directions, which may make things a little easier to remember.

The revised timetable can be downloaded from the Stephenson’s website, or (combined with service 12) from Suffolk County Council’s Suffolkonboard site.