Removing charges leads to greater use of P&R car parks!

The data wranglers at Smart Cambridge have been taking a look at the parking figures at the Park & Ride sites since charges were removed at the beginning of April. I'm sure you'll find this hard to believe, but usage has increased. Yes, really!

So far, the only site relevant to the Busway that they've investigated is Trumpington. The increase there is lower than at Babraham Road - as this Smart Cambridge post explains, this is because Trumpington operates at closer to maximum capacity for some of the time, so the scope for increased usage is diminished.

What the data cannot tell us - this could only be determined by a survey of vehicle users - is whether the additional parking results from drivers who would previously have carried on into the city (clearly a "good thing"), or from those who now undertake the first part of their journey by car or van, where previously it would have been entirely by public transport. If it were to be the latter, then - perversely - the removal of parking charges could actually have led to an increase in the number of vehicles driving into the Cambridge suburbs. But we have no way of knowing.

Route A additional services from 28 July

Although these proposals haven't yet been submitted to the Traffic Commissioners, there are changes afoot at the southern end of Route A.

From 28 July there will be new Busway A services to and from Trumpington Park and Ride

Two new services will run from the Park and Ride at 06:02 and 06:17, and there will also be a new bus route to and through the biomedical campus from Royston, also stopping at Melbourn, Shepreth, Foxton and Harston (separate to the existing 26 bus service which currently routes to the City). This new bus route will initially run hourly and will be an extension to the Busway A to/from Trumpington Park and Ride.

The new 08:03 Busway A service from Longstanton will now be a single-deck bus, which means it can travel all the way to the biomedical campus as opposed to terminating at Cambridge rail station. 

Busway diversions - weekends in April

More diversions coming up! Starting tomorrow (Saturday 7 April)!!

This weekend: between Cambridge Railway Station and Trumpington Park and Ride
14-15 April: in Histon, between Park Road and Station Road (St Ives-bound buses will serve a stop in Station Road)

Further information (although there isn't much to be said) is available on the County Council website. (Annoyingly, there's no link to this announcement on the County Council's own dedicated Busway page - and the announcement itself appears, from the embedded metadata, to have been posted as late as 2115 on 6 April - contradicting the displayed date of 5 April, and leaving it rather late to warn passengers)

Free parking to be reinstated next month

Ever since it was introduced in May 2015 - no, let's be honest, it was an issue from the moment it was first announced - the parking charge at the Busway Park & Ride sites has proved controversial. There are many who felt it was counter-productive, hostile to the idea that the County Council should be encouraging people out of their cars and onto public transport.

At last - but in no small measure due to the existence of the Greater Cambridge Partnership, perhaps (it has money!) - the charge is to be removed, and free parking reinstated. This is due to happen on 1 April, and is presumably no April Fool.

The Cambridge Network has more details. Apparently,  according to one prominent councillor: "the removal of the £1 parking fee [is] a positive move to continue to make the Park & Ride the first transport choice for people coming into the city." Some might ask why this argument wasn't more energetically made at the time of the charge's introduction.

Route R - temporarily reduced frequency

Acoording to a report in the Cambridge News, service frequency on Route R,  between the railway station and Trumpington Park & Ride, is to be temporarily reduced from 17 October. This service has to turn round at the station, and the turning circle is being moved (or, possibly, removed), one consequence being that Route R services will have to venture out on to Station Road and Hills Road, with all that this means for journey times and (un)reliable timekeeping. So the service will operate on a 30-minute frequency, instead of the current 15 (this is, of course, only a peak-hour route, Mon-Fri).

All the partners involved are reported to be committed to restoring the original service "in the New Year".

There's no news of this change as yet on the Stagecoach website.

Route "R" passenger numbers "over target"

Stagecoach reports that passenger numbers on Busway route R (Railway Station-Trumpington Park and Ride, rush-hours only) are running "over target". As Andy Campbell, MD of Stagecoach East, puts it: "In the second week of April this year, we carried over 1,600 passengers on the service – well over our target".

The full story is carried on the Cambridge Network website (a source of which I admit to being unaware until a few minutes ago).

Busway engineering work - Saturday 18 April

Bus route A will be diverted on Saturday 18 April not 16 March as indicated in the first email.

This announcement was sent out yesterday:

On Saturday 18th April 2015 the southern section of Busway track will be closed for engineering work.

Due to the nature of the work being carried out the Busway A will be using an alternative route between Trumpington park&ride and Addenbrooke's Hospital. This means the service will be unable to call at Trumpington Foster Road ALL DAY on Saturday 18th March.

Customers usually boarding/alighting at this location should either use the Busway A from/to Trumpington park&ride or the Citi 7 service from/to Trumpington High Street as an alternative. Please note the Citi 7 only runs as far as Central Cambridge northbound.

All other Busway stops and services are unaffected.

Correction issued today reads as follows:

Yesterday we sent an email alerting you about forthcoming engineering works affecting services stopping at Foster Road. The incorrect dates were included in this email.

The work at Foster Road is taking place ALL DAY on Saturday 18th April. Please disregard the other dates mentioned in the previous email.

We are sorry for any confusion caused by the previous email.

Busway track repairs

If you are travelling on the busway today, you may notice that the track is closed near Histon for repair work. That section of track has been quite bumpy for some time. Between Longstanton and Oakington, and also between Oakington and Histon,  there are two other places where they've dug out some of the track ballast, presumably with a view to carrying out repairs.

But how bad is ithe busway track in reality? Will every track section have to be lifted and new rubber [ads inserted?

An article in the Wisbech Standard here suggests that it is very bad.

The busway between Trumpington and  Addenbrooke's will be closed for repairs next weekend.

Also reported in the Cambridge News here.

Wednesday 10th August 2011

This morning I walked to the Park & Ride to catch the route A bus leaving at 07.38. This got me in to New Square at 08.07, which is pretty good.

I was able to take a longer lunch break than usual and decide to go to Trumpington on the guided bus to see what the southern end of the route is like. There was a 13.11 departure from New Square, and it took 10 minutes to reach the Railway Station via the ordinary streets. the A calls at a bus stop about 150 metres from the station entrance. This stop is situated in the middle of a building site and it looks as if they are creating a series of bus stops near that location.  The busway dives under Hills Road Bridge, which has a 12ft 1in height limit, explaining why Route A only has single decker buses. Then followed a fast section more or less parallel to the railway line, built on the track of the former railway from Cambridge to Bedford and Oxford. Addenbrooke's is reached by a branch guideway rising steeply to cross the railway line. At the far side is a T junction, and the far side of the junction is built to allow an extra section of guideway to be built at a later stage, which will hopefully shorten the  Addenbrooke's loop. The bus follows a  slow and tortuous route anti-clockwise around the Addenbrooke's campus with 5 bus stops.  The whole loop took 14 minutes to complete, and returning to the main guideway, we turned right towards  a bus stop called "Trumpington". Immediately afterwards, the guideway becomes single track, with traffic lights controlling entry, and squeezed under Trumpington Road to emerge at the Park & Ride. Running time 31 minutes = 9 minutes longer than scheduled. The return journey retrace the same route taking 26 minutes - 4 over schedule.

It's as if they've tacked a Trumpington-Addenbrooke's shuttle service onto an Addenbrooke's- St Ives service.  The two seem scarcely compatible. And the slow plod round the hospital site might be contributing to late running further north. Maybe they are planning to run a fast direct service between Trumpington P&R  and the City Centre via the Rail Station. But for the meantime, passengers going from the P&R should us the old P&R bus service on the ordinary roads.

My journey home today was on the 17.01 from New Square which I picked up at Parkside. Having checked the live bus times online, I knew it was running a few minutes late, which meant I didn't have to rush. We left at 17.05 ( 6 minutes late) and  getting held up a bit by slow traffic on Victoria Avenue and  near the Arbury Road/Milton Road junction, I got to St Ives P&R at 17.45. 40 minutes running time.