Posts and updates

Links to our own blogposts, and other relevant reports – local and national – not linked to on any other page.

Blogposts:

Please note that any advertisements which appear in association with these posts are not indicative of any endorsement by the author. They are placed there by a WordPress algorithm.

Public Meeting: The Future of Cambridge Area’s Bus Services

Speakers from Stagecoach, Whippet and Smarter Cambridge Transport
share their visions for better bus services.
Saturday 15th June 2019 at 2pm
St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church,
43 St Andrew’s Street, Cambridge CB2 3AR
Cambridge Area Bus Users Annual General Meeting commences at 2pm
Followed by the debate at around 2:30pm
Click for full details

Flagging up a problem…

Do intending passengers know that there is a bus service, where it stops, and when it runs? Who should provide information, bus operators, local government, or volunteers?

Call for action to support buses as new report shows £182m cut and council bus budgets halved

A new report released on Monday 2 July 2018, the start of national Catch the Bus Week by the Campaign for Better Transport shows funding for supported buses has been halved in the last eight years, leaving many parts of England and Wales without public transport.

Could Bus Franchising be the answer? Join the debate, leave your comments.

Stagecoach wants to double size of Cambridge bus station by building on Christ’s Pieces

Andy Campbell, the managing director for Stagecoach East, said now is the time for “radical” solutions to the city’s transport problems. Read the full article.

The state of our bus services

A Stagecoach dayrider ticket, valid for a day’s travel in Cambridge and necklace villages (but not as far as Sawston or Hauxton) cost £2.80 in 2007. If fares had risen with inflation (wages, fuel and CPI), it would now cost £3.58. Today it’s £4.50, 25% higher in real terms than in 2007. Is the service 25% better? From Edward Leigh, Smarter Cambridge Transport. Read the full article.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Economic Review

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Economic Review – developed by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Economic Commission – has come out in favour of bus franchising. Read and download the report here.

Connectivity is a key issue for market towns, the majority of which are served only by buses by way of public transport. It is vital that steps are taken to improve their connectivity.

Subsidiary Recommendation xiii): The Mayor should use his bus franchising powers under the Devolution Deal to improve the regularity of bus services to and between market towns. (p16)

University of Cambridge spin-out Echion Technologies has developed new technology to improve the battery capacity and charging speed of electric vehicles. The technology is based on innovation around the fundamental chemistry and nanostructure of a lithium ion battery’s active anode material. The company’s aim is to commercialize an improvement to lithium-ion batteries allowing them to hold more electricity and charge more quickly. The company is primarily targeting electric buses and light duty fleet vehicles as customers. (p49)

More effective buses, including through the use of the Mayor’s powers for introducing bus franchising are vital for the less well-off in areas where other forms of public transport would fail any cost-benefit calculation. They canconnect students to education and widen employment opportunities, as well as work to alleviate loneliness and isolation among the elderly. (p79)

The Commission believes the Combined Authority is absolutely right to be looking at ambitious, and potentially novel, transport modes in its plans for Cambridge. But for the market towns, especially those further from Cambridge, more everyday modes, particularly buses, are important. We have heard that many bus services are increasingly infrequent, and unreliable. The hours which some bus services run are also very limited – for instance, there are three buses from March to Chatteris and Huntingdon in the morning, and only one back in the evening.

We believe that in this area of bus travel, the Combined Authority is in a strong position tomake a difference. The Devolution Deal agreed with government stated that “A new, directly elected Mayor of the proposed Combined Authority will… Have the ability to franchise busservices in the Combined Authority area, subject to necessary legislation and local consultation and agreement”85. Only Mayoral Combined Authorities have this power without the need for secondary legislation (according to the Bus Services Act, 2017). London hasemployed this power to great effect, bringing about reduced costs for buses and allowing forfull network control. In a rural area, buses are even more important – particularly for tackling isolation, as in rural areas the social cost of not being able to travel is higher.

Subsidiary Recommendation xiii): The Mayor should use his bus franchising
powers under the Devolution Deal to improve the regularity of bus services to and between market towns. (p119)

Read and download the report here.

Read the response to the CPIER Interim Report from Smarter Cambridge Transport here.

Cambridge Area Bus Users’ Executive Committee has been meeting a few key people to establish contact, to inform ourselves of their views and to explore the extent to which we can assist one another.

We will be contacting other passenger interest-groups and Residents’ Associations on an ongoing basis.

Four of the Executive Committee also contributed to an ‘interest group’ meeting with Peter Hardy of Systra as part of Mayor Palmer‘s bus services review for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Notes of Meeting with James Palmer of Combined Authority 7 August 2018 (PDF 86 KB)
Notes of Meeting with Andy Campbell of Cambus 9 August 2018 (PDF 105 KB)
SYSTRA Meeting with interest groups, 1 August 2018 (PDF 110 KB)
Notes of Meeting with Charlie Hamilton of Whippet 14 August 2018 (PDF 135 KB)

Share this: