Wednesday 1 August 2012

More changes to service B timetable

Stagecoach are having to make changes to the service B timetable in order to improve punctuality. In an email today, they say these amendments will be introduced from Monday 5th August, but I assume that should read Monday 6th August. Here are the changes they are making:
  • Buses from Peterborough, Hinchingbrooke Hospital and Huntingdon rail station are retimed to leave up to 15 minutes later.
  • Buses from St Ives towards Huntingdon will arrive at Hartford and all stops to Hinchingbrooke Hospital up to 3 minutes later.
  • Buses are retimed between Huntingdon and Peterborough to give extra time for the journey. All leave and arrive slightly later.
  • Evening buses from Huntingdon to Cambridge after 1900 hours and return buses from Cambridge after 2000 hours run 10 minutes later throughout.
  • There are no changes to bus times on The Busway track during the daytime.
  • There are no changes to route A.
Attached to the email is a pdf of the amended timetable , but it does not yet appear on the Stagecoach website.

Despite what the email says, the revised departures from Peterborough seem generally to be 5 minutes after the current timetable. Hinchingbrooke Hospital and Huntingdon Rail Station departures are 15 minutes later than now. the Peterborough to Huntingdon running time is slowed from 48 to 58 minutes ( 44 to 49 minutes northbound), and Peterborough to Cambridge Drummer Street is now 2 hours 2 minutes ( 1 hour 59 minutes going north).

Evening buses on service B from Drummer Street will leave at 1953 (as now), then 2103, 2133, 2233 and 2333. There are As from New Square (but not Drummer Street) plugging the long gap between the 1953 and 2103  B departures.

I guess they will now have to reprint their recently published timetable booklet!

4 comments:

  1. Will this make a difference (improvement!)as to how well the buses serving the railway station connect with trains?

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    Replies
    1. Yes. Only one bus an hour will serve the bus stop in the station forecourt. Two buses an hour ( those starting from /terminating at Hinchingbrooke Hospital) will call at the bus stops on Brampton Road just outside the station. The fact that the Hinchingbrooke buses serve stops close to the railway station isn't made clear in Stagecoach's timetable. The other effect will be that, instead of a regular 20 minute interval service to the station, there will be an irregular pattern with gaps of 15, 15 and 30 minutes.

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    2. I knew - and saw - about the buses stopping at the top of the road - I was just hoping that the revised timetable - with buses arriving departing later - would match the train arrivals and departures better...

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    3. Stagecoach have said they don't connect with particular trains. The last bus from Huntingdon Rail Station is 22.20 so no good for an evening out in London. 2000 arrival from Peterborough connects with 2011 bus, 2144 train with 2211 bus. No good connection for 2034 and 2112 arrivals from Peterborough. Arriving from London, the 2053 connects to the 2111 bus, and the 2151 train with the 2211 bus (18-20 minute connection time).

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