Traffic problems

Friday's journey from Cambridge to St Ives illustrated the problems that the bus companies face in trying to run their bus services.

I travelled on the 16.30 Service B from Drummer Street. We were 2 minutes late starting from Drummer Street, and 4 minutes late leaving New Square. Both these delays were the result of slow loading: there are no ticket machines at Drummer Street and New Square, so drivers have to issue tickets and give change.

New Square to the Shire Hall took 14 minutes - due to congestion in Magdalene Street, where there is a short single track section in a road used by dozens of buses every hour. The traffic lights changed from red to green about 6 times before we got through to Castle Hill.

Traffic was extremely slow in Histon Road -  6 minutes from Huntingdon Road to the end of Gilbert Road.

So 30 minutes from Drummer Street to the busway at Orchard Park. Not good. But how can this problems be avoided without  measures to reduce traffic in the Magdalene Street/Histon Road area?