Greater Cambridge Partnership and Stagecoach East unveil first electric buses to serve Greater Cambridge

The new zero-emission vehicles – two of 15 in Stagecoach’s national bus fleet – can travel 160 miles on a single charge and will operate on the Cambridge citi 6 route serving the city centre, Girton and Oakington to provide cleaner and greener journeys for thousands of people every day.

The Greater Cambridge Partnership has provided around £400,000 to help introduce the vehicles into service. The public money representing the difference in cost between two modern, ultra-low emission EuroVI vehicles, and these fully electric vehicles.

Alexander Dennis has supplied the electric double deckers to Stagecoach for a project between the operator and the Greater Cambridge Partnership, supporting an improvement in air quality in the city centre of Cambridge and giving the opportunity to inform potential future investment in a zero emission bus fleet.

The BYD ADL Enviro400EV is built in ADL’s factories in Great Britain on chassis supplied by its electric bus partner for the UK market, BYD. Stagecoach has opted for the 4.2m low-height version of ADL’s City style body, seating up to 70 passengers on comfortable ADL SmartSeats. The 10.9m long vehicles provide room for a further 13 standees.

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Video report by ITV News Anglia’s Stuart Leithes Click to view.

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These two vehicles will give drivers, maintenance technicians and management at Stagecoach East’s Cowley Road depot valuable experience ahead of any future roll-out of electrification of the local bus fleet.

These are the first electric buses in Cambridgeshire as we work to transform public transport, cut congestion and improve the quality of the air we breathe.

These electric buses, two of 15 in Stagecoach’s national fleet, will mean better journeys for thousands of people travelling in clean vehicles, with thousands more benefiting from less pollution on our busy roads.

Cllr Aidan Van de Weyer, chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Executive Board

To celebrate the launch, pupils from Girton Glebe and Oakington schools will name the two new electric buses. A panel from the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Stagecoach will choose a name put forward by each school for each of new buses, with the winning pupils invited to a special naming ceremony.

I’m looking forward to seeing what names schoolchildren come up with for the buses and finding out what people think about these eye-catching and emission-free vehicles as they transport people around the city.

Cllr Ian Bates, transport portfolio holder for the Greater Cambridge Partnership

We hope that ‘Bussy Mc Bus-Face’ will not make it to the short-list!

The new vehicles can travel 160 miles on a single charge. Cambridge’s citi 6 route has been chosen because it only requires two vehicles, each travelling just over 150 miles per day. Drivers have received extra training and the depot has been kitted out with special charging points.

The vehicles are kept on charge constantly whilst parked in Cowley Road depot until fully charged. Whist over the pits, or otherwise in maintenance, a portable charger is used.

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All lighting is by low-energy LEDs, whilst interior heating is utilises air source heat pumps which, typically, produce 3kw to 4kw of heat for every 1kw of electricity consumed.

Over the years we have steadily reduced the environmental impact of our diesel buses and now 32% of the fleet have the most efficient Euro VI engines.

The addition of the electric vehicles is a further step forward in our attempts to keep emissions to a minimum. Over the past decade across the UK, Stagecoach has invested more than £1 billion in new greener vehicles and by the end of 2020 it will have one of the biggest electric bus fleets in Europe.

As a company committed to doing the right thing for our planet and our communities, Stagecoach is leading the way in the transition to a cleaner public transport future.

Michelle Hargreaves, Stagecoach East Managing Director

The new zero-emission buses will not only help to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality, but will also enhance the passenger experience due to smoother and quieter journeys.

“Smoother and quieter journeys”? Our secretary rode the citi6 to Oakington and reports that even the smoothest electric bus cannot iron out Cambridgeshire County Council’s potholes!

Meanwhile, 32% of Stagecoach East’s fleet have Euro VI engines; Euro 6 diesel cars produce on average 0.8g of NO_xper Kilometre compared to Euro VI diesel buses that produce just 0.1g of NO_x per Kilometre. These modern Euro VI – engined buses also have ultra-low particulate (PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 ) emissions.

Euro VI diesel bus engines are subjected to a regime of ‘real world’ testing which is not susceptible to the ‘gaming’ of the testing regime which has been seen with the testing of the Euro 6 light engine for cars, taxis and vans.

NO_x is shorthand for oxides of nitrogen – nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide – that are produced when fuel is burned and that are harmful to the environment. PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 refer to microscopic particles smaller than 10µm and 2.5µm in diameter.

Sources:

• Stagecoach East press release
• Cambridge News report
• Cambridge Network report
• The Truck Expert report
• EV bus (BYD/ADL) press release

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Comments (pre-moderated) may be made below.

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The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority survey on bus services has now ended. Cambridge Area Bus Users submitted a narrative response.

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Click here to read/download our submission (PDF 397KB). Below is a a short summary of some of our points.

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We queried whether bus services are, currently fit for purpose for travel-to-work, journeys for 7/7 employment in health leisure and shopping, whether rural residents had the kind of services which will enable and encourage them to the the bus rather than the car.

We are critical of accessibility for people living with disabilities – particularly visual, hearing or hidden disabilities.

This ranges from bus tops on muddy verges, to the need for on-board route and stop information – particularly audio-visual information.

We stressed the need for better, reliable, accurate, comprehensive information on bus routes and fares and this to be accessible to all, especially people with visual disabilities.

We pointed to the lack of bus connections to Cambridge North station from Orchard Park, Arbury, Kings Hedges, Histon village centre, Cottenham, Fen Ditton, Quy, Bottisham, The Wilbrahams and The Swaffhams. Moreover, Cambourne lacks a direct bus service to any railway station.

We praised operators for introducing contactless and smartphone app technology for ticket purchase, but stressed the need for more innovation to speed boarding times, and for the simplification of (and prominent information on) fares, with the need for multi-operator, multi-modal ticketing being a key objective.

We praised operators Stagecoach and Whippet for introducing newer vehicles with higher-quality seating, which have helped bus travel to escape its previous spartan image. Independent operator A2B is to be commended for updating their fleet with good-quality second-hand vehicles for use on contracted services. Nearly all vehicles now meet Euro V standard (and many are Euro VI) for NO_x and PM¹⁰/PM^2.5 emissions.

Whilst buses are unlikely to be the major source of NO_x and PM¹⁰/PM^2.5 emissions, in the city centre, owing to the tighter testing regimes for heavy Euro VI diesel engines vs the Euro 6 diesel car/van, we believe that it is unacceptable that the latest round of Cambridgeshire County Council tenders (on behalf of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority) specifies that any bus which does not come into Cambridge only has to meet Euro III emissions standards, whilst anything that enters Cambridge only has to meet Euro IV. Improving on that specification could give a ‘quick win’ for air quality.

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By all means add your comment below this line, but please comment on our document as a whole. The foregoing is merely a short summary of some of our points.

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According to Traveline, there are a number of changes to Busway routes A, B and D due to take effect on Monday 13th January. There is no mention of any changes on either the Stagecoach or County Council Busway websites, but a new departures sheet was noted at St Ives Station Road this morning.

You are advised to check the Traveline website. What follows is an attempt to encapsulate the changes based on a quick comparison of new and existing timetables.

Note, first, that there are no changes to Sunday services.

As for the rest of the week (including Saturdays)… The most significant changes are to routes A and D. There seems to be a significant increase in journey times on the stretch between Orchard Park and St Ives town centre. How is this reflected in the timetable?

On city-bound trips, most services will depart St Ives 7 minutes (or thereabouts) earlier than at present, and operate 7 (or so) minutes earlier to Orchard Park. Thereafter timings seem unchanged.

On St Ives-bound trips, most services will depart from the city stops as at present, but after Orchard Park will run 7 (or so) minutes later than at present.

There seem to be changes to how the services are being organised in St Ives beyond the town centre. In addition to changes to the times of buses, there may be some switching of routes between the A and the D (and possibly changes to the routes themselves). Check the new timetable carefully!

The first Mon-Fri departure from Ramsey will be at 0605 (i.e. 15 minutes earlier than at present). Morning departures from other villages and towns into St Ives and Cambridge are 5-10 minutes earlier than previously.

There are changes to the routes taken by both services inside the Biomedical Campus. Southbound services will call at the Royal Papworth only as they leave the campus. Northbound services will call at the Royal Papworth only as they first enter the campus.

There are minor changes on route B, seemingly affecting just the indicative times at intermediate stops. So, for example, outbound services will notionally call at Shire Hall 3 minutes after leaving Drummer St, 2 minutes earlier than at present.

There seem to be no changes to services south of Trumpington, nor to route B services north of St Ives.

I apologise if I’ve missed something that’s key to an individual reader’s particular journey, but there was a lot of data to wade through. And I was aware that those of you heading off for your Monday commute might appreciate some advance warning.

(When I checked at 2300 on Jan 11 the new timetables were not available on the Stagecoach website, only from Traveline.)

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The Universal Bus service has now been running for 3 years, since the Whippet contract superseded the former Stagecoach Uni4. The bus service is subsidised by the University of Cambridge who are keen to understand users’ views on the current service and how it might be improved in the future.

If you currently use, have previously used, or would like to use the Universal Bus, please compete the survey to give your feedback. All respondents will have the chance to win £100! The survey will be open until 19th January 2020.

The survey and focus group findings will help guide the future development of the service.

Further comments about the service can be made by email.

Homerton and Girton students would like better links, and would like to hear the views of other users.

Alongside my counterpart at Girton College, I’m currently running a campaign for restoration of a bus service to Hills Road and the end of Huntingdon Road that will serve the University sites on Sidgwick Site (Grange Road, etc.) and West Cambridge (JJ Thompson Avenue, etc.). As you may be aware prior to 5^th December 2016 the university service was operated by Stagecoach as the Uni 4 and served all these destinations except from the end of Huntingdon Road.

We would be especially keen to hear from local people who were/are affected by this change and would be interested in seeing a service restored both in the short and long term and thought you would be the best organisation to ask about this.

Henry Wright, elected Vice-President External of the Homerton Union of Students

Comments may be left below, or you can email Henry directly.

Following upon the Stagecoach feedback session, on 28^th November 2019 at the Tamburlaine Hotel, it is confirmed that the service is to be improved and capacity strengthened through the purchase of 12 100-seat tri-axle, double-door double-deckers, for route A and six additional single-deckers for route B.

At peak times the ‘core’ of the route – St Ives P&R – Central Cambridge – Railway Station – Biomedical Campus (including Addenbrooke’s & Royal Papworth) – Trumpington P&R will see a five-minute frequency.

There is also a planned Sunday service on route A along the southern busway – Central Cambridge – Railway Station – Biomedical Campus (including Addenbrooke’s & Royal Papworth) – Trumpington P&R. A welcome new development.

If passengers were wondering how a 100-seat tri-axle, double-door double-decker would navigate the Jesus Lane / Bridge Street corner or the Round Church Street corner, the answer is that Stagecoach plan to swap the A and B routes with in Cambridge, with the B serving Cambridge North station and continuing via Milton Road, whilst the A is planned serve Orchard Park and continue via Histon Road.

These planned upgrades will, unfortunately, be delayed until the A14 upgrade works on the Histon Road and Milton Road roundabouts have been completed and the section of the northern busway. Thereafter, Greater Cambridge Partnership’s remodelling of Histon Road will commence, meaning that there will be further diversions for route A…

Whilst Stagecoach stressed that the timetables are not ‘set in stone’ it seems certain that route R Railway Station – Trumpington P&R direct will be withdrawn. The loss of the Station Square roundabout in the redevelopment has already had a detrimental effect on this service, with the need for buses to make time-wasting ‘loops’ via Hills Road, Station Road and Brookgate.

This development has not pleased Trumpington Residents’ Association who have written to Stagecoach East, saying (inner alia):

While pleased to hear of possible improvements to the busway service, the Association is very concerned to hear of the proposed cancellation of Route R, to which we are opposed.

Many passengers who use the guided bus wish to go direct to the Rail Station and beyond, not having to detour to Addenbrooke’s Hospital which takes a minimum of six minutes – often significantly exceeded at peak times. In our view, the R service should be extended to allow this. We are, therefore, very concerned to hear that Stagecoach intend to cancel the R service in favour of more route A services, all of which make the minimum six-minute detour round the Biomedical Campus. Residents will not be impressed with this.

We understand from last week’s feedback event that the logic is to provide extra buses/drivers to improve the frequency and reliability of the Route A service, thus offering a “turn up and go” ability which is intended to more than offset the minimum extra six minutes. Psychologically, this does not work for passengers. For anyone not actually heading to the Campus, the detour will in practice undermine the Busway’s USP as an otherwise express service by forcing it to grind around the Campus serving a number of stops on a 20mph internal road system which, not infrequently, is gridlocked at peak times. This is an impossible sell for many actual and potential passengers.

It conflicts directly with the intention of the Cambridge Autonomous Metro which demands direct travel from the Trumpington Park & Ride and the new Cambridge South West Travel Hub – in addition to, not instead of a good service to the Campus – to which of course the R does contribute in its service to Astra Zeneca and others on the short loop it presently follows. It will be a disincentive to the significant change in people’s mode of travel which is the overriding objective of the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority/Mayor. This makes little sense to us and we ask that it should not proceed.

David Plank
For Trumpington Residents’ Association
2^nd December 2019

What is unclear at the time of writing, is whether route A will be permitted to serve passengers along Histon Road. Histon Road Area Residents Association have long campaigned for restoration of their former direct bus link to Addenbrooke’s. The Cambridge Area Bus Users view is that allowing route A services to pick up and set down along Histon Road would be an excellent New Year’s present for local residents.

Similarly, Milton Road residents and, in particular, Hurst Park Estate Residents’ Association would welcome route B serving at least some stops on Milton Road.

We understand that the new vehicles will be in a are in the a Stagecoach ‘Limited stop’ livery of ‘Duck Egg Green’. Cambridge Area Bus Users wonders if these ‘Limited Stop’ (express) services will still be required to give longer-distance passengers a scenic tour of Huntingdon’s Oxmoor Estate en-route between Huntingdon bus station and St Ives.

It is pleasing that passengers will be benefitting from Stagecoach’s multi-million-pound investment in new, high-quality vehicles. Cambridge Area Bus Users welcomes this, and hopes that route improvements will be of benefit to all.

Stagecoach have announced a number of changes to Cambridge-area services, to take effect from 5th January 2020.

Evening journeys on the Citi 4 will follow the same route around Cambourne as daytime services, so including Upper Cambourne.

The hourly off-peak journeys on the Citi 5 which extend to the villages east of the A14 (Longstanton, Over, Swavesey and Willingham) will, in future depart from/terminate at Bar Hill Tesco. Passengers to/from Cambridge will need to change at Bar Hill. The new timetable shows the relevant connections, although it is unclear what will happen if any of the relevant buses are running late. Clockwise trips around the villages are to operate as service 5C, and anti-clockwise as 5A. Passengers for Cambridge city centre may want to consider Longstanton Park & Ride as an alternative connecting point. Swavesey Village College service 96 has been discontinued, but the trip runs instead as a 5C service.

There are minor timetable changes to the Citi 6, Citi 7, Citi 8 and 18.

The Stagecoach website has more details, as well as links to the revised timetables.

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Thank you to St Ives Town Council, for sharing their narrative response with us. We would welcome similar feedback from any other Parish/Town Councils and Residents’ Associations. Please email us.

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A1096 junction improvements around St Ives	The Town Council notes that these studies are underway.   Consideration should be given to providing better access to the bus station directly from the A1096 to improve journey time reliability for village bus services
Bus infrastructure (St Ives to Huntingdon)	This proposal is supported. Consideration should be given to: Any new bus lanes near St Ives should respect existing trees and hedges  Removing narrow sections on North Road, St Ives Measures to reduce rat running by cars through St Ives should be considered
Wyton airfield access	The Town Council would support the Old Ramsey Road north of St Ives being used as a pedestrian/cycle route and possible bus only road to any new development at Wyton.  The Town Council would oppose the use of this road as a normal road open to all traffic.
LTP Objective 2- sustainable access to jobs	St Ives has good public transport access via the busway to some key employment sites in Cambridge. At present the industrial area of St Ives has no regular bus service and pedestrian /cycle access to residential areas is poor.  There are no bus services linking St Ives to the industrial area of Huntingdon.  There are no suitable bus services linking St Ives to Bar Hill, and Cambourne for workers.
The Guided Busway	The busway provides frequent services to Cambridge during the day (8 buses per hour)  Peak hour buses are often full by the time they reach the busway – additional capacity is required especially as Northstowe develops. In the evening peak, passengers traveling back from Cambridge beyond St Ives to some villages often can not get on the one service to their particular village, leaving them stranded. Limited stop buses missing out stops nearer to Cambridge may be required. There is a need for more frequent buses in the evening, every 20 minutes from Cambridge and every 30 minutes from Huntingdon.  The Sunday service needs to extend into the evening to allow people to use public transport for days out.
Rural Bus Services	St Ives has a range of bus services linking it to surrounding villages; a few villages have an hourly services (Monday to Friday), other villages only 1-2 buses a week. St Ives is seen as a local centre for a range of services not available in the villages. These include shopping, banking, medical services and leisure (community groups and sports facilities). Providing suitable public transport from these villages is considered essential both for the wellbeing of St Ives but also for the wellbeing of those in the villages. The Town Council would want the larger villages connected to St Ives by buses running hourly 6 days a week. The Town Council would support more community based transport schemes for the smaller villages. Some villages have both commercial services in the peak periods onto the busway and CCC supported services during the day. Tickets are not interchangeable making it more expensive to use the bus. The busway services are designed around workers in Cambridge and are generally not suitable for workers coming into St Ives. The supported services start too late and finish too early for many workers in St Ives . This gap in services need to be filled if workers are to be encouraged to use the bus.

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Click here to download a PDF of this response.

Have your say on future bus services

This survey has now ended.

Cambridge Area Bus Users submitted a narrative response. Click here to read/download our submission (PDF 397KB). There is a summary of the main points here.

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Thank you to St Ives Town Council, for sharing their narrative response with us. Click here to view the document. We would welcome similar feedback from any other Parish/Town Councils and Residents’ Associations. Please email us.

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This morning, Wednesday 6th November, BBC Radio Cambridgeshire’s Kev Lawrence Breakfast show were celebrating the scheduled early opening – on Monday 9 December – of the new 12-mile A14 Huntingdon bypass, between Swavesey and Ellington.

Read Nicola Gwyer‘s Cambridge News article here: Guided Busway closure extended again because of A14 roadworks.

Stagecoach service updates: The Busway, Cambridgeshire – November 2019 Update;  The Busway, Cambridgeshire – 21 June 2019 FURTHER UPDATE.

Cambridge Area Bus Users say: More priority for private cars; more disruption for buses. Something has to change!

The Greater Cambridge Partnership‘s controversial ‘improvement’ scheme for Histon Road, which will see this key bus route disrupted by the road’s southbound closure for up to a year have been suspended. Works, which were scheduled to start in November 2019, are now expected to commence in April/May 2020.

During the road closure traffic will be diverted from A14 junction 32 (Histon Road) to junction 33 (Milton Road). All city-bound buses will run via via Milton Road.

However, A14 upgrade works are currently affecting both these junctions.

The delay to the controversial ‘improvement’ scheme for Histon Road will allow the A14 works on these junctions to be completed before the Greater Cambridge Partnership scheme commences.

The decision was announced at the Greater Cambridge Partnership Executive Board meeting on Thursday 3^rd October 2019.

See Local Democracy Reporter Ben Hatton’s report Year-long closure of southbound Histon Road delayed so A14 junction work can be completed in the Cambridge Independent for more details.

Whilst this will be of benefit to all traffic and is, in our view, a sensible postponement, neither Cambridge Area Bus Users nor Histon Road Area Residents Association are happy about the major disruption these works will bring to their (already inadequate) bus services.

It has also been suggested that simple removal of on-street parking might provide most of the benefits for bus users, for little of the expense or disruption.

How much time will be saved on bus journeys – and how long the deficit of a year’s disruption will take to be recouped in a few minutes per bus journey – is a moot point.

Moreover, there is no guarantee that local residents will benefit from improved timings on Busway route B. Histon Road Area Residents Association‘s members are merely entitled to wave to lucky passengers on the B, but not to board the service, which currently runs non-stop along Histon Road. It is, explains Stagecoach East, ‘an express service’.

Excuse our loud ‘harrumph’ – route B is ‘express’ in Cambridge and on the Busway but, beyond there, gives ‘express’ passengers a scenic tour of Huntingdon’s Oxmoor Estate, stopping frequently…