Whippet - temporary changes from 30 March

Whippet operate the Universal (U) service, whose route includes the Busway section between the main railway station and the Biomedical Campus. From today, 30 March, there are (temporarily) minor changes to the weekday timetable, to take account of the much emptier roads (which means taking the slack out of the timetable).

At weekends, the U will serve the Biomedical Campus on both Saturdays and Sundays - this will be the first time that any of the southern Busway has had regular Sunday services. In addition, weekend services will start earlier and end later.

Full information, including a link to the temporary timetable, is on the Whippet website.

Bank Holiday services return to southern Busway

Yes, I know that Good Friday and Easter Monday have been and gone, so apologies in advance for this retrospective posting.

One (less-than-desirable?) feature of Sundays and Bank Holidays is that there are no services on the southern portion of the Busway, between Cambridge Railway Station and the Biomedical Campus. As I've commented elsewhere, it seems that operators (and one particularly large operator locally) are keen to lock as many buses as possible away in their depots. Bank Holidays are supposed to be like Sundays (tell that to the 30-35 passengers on a "U" service at 1925 on Good Friday evening)!

Well, Whippet broke with that shabby "tradition" this Easter, and ran a full "P" service on both Friday and Monday. Which means that there were Bank Holiday services on that southern stretch for the first time since... well, I think it's the first time ever, but stand open to correction from someone with a better memory than mine.

Unfortunately - and didn't you know there was going to be a "but" to this good news - it helps if people know those services are running. According to Traveline there were no services on this route on either day. The Whippet website, and the print "P" timetable (plus its online equivalent) made no mention of Bank Holiday services. All I could eventually track down was a single tweet from Whippet HQ informing its followers what was happening over the holiday weekend. It's possible they also showed up in apps offering real-time operating data (e.g. the UK Bus Checker, or Traveline's own).

So 10/10 for daring to offer the service. But a rather lower score for making sure people know that the buses are out on the road, waiting to be used.

Extended hours (Mon-Fri) on Busway's southern section

From 8 October, there are significant changes to the University's "U" service (operated by Whippet). What this means for the Busway specifically is that there are earlier and later departures on the Busway southern section - between the Railway Station and Addenbrooke's Hospital - on weekdays (i.e. Monday to Frinday).

Currently, Stagecoach's earliest departures are 0636 (outbound) and 0631 (inbound), with the latest at 1959 and 2017 respectively. The new Whippet timetable offers slightly earlier departures in both directions (0620 and 0631), and much later final departures in the evenings (2156 and 2207). Sadly, the "U" still doesn't serve Addenbrooke's at the weekend.

The new timetable is available for download here..

Unplanned diversion - overrunning works?

The Busway was closed during this morning's rush hour south of Cambridge Railway Station. Does anyone have any further information? I've checked the County Council, Stagecoach and Whippet Twitter feeds, Facebook and web pages, and none report any problems. The driver of one bus was clearly unaware, so it seems like a last-minute thing.

My guess is that it's "overrunning engineering works" (a disease transmitted by the neighbouring railway line, perhaps...).

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)

Changes to Whippet bus routes from 2 September

Whippet have announced the withdrawal of a number of their bus services and you can read the full details here:

http://www.go-whippet.co.uk/changes-local-bus-services-2-september-2017/

However, service C, which operates on the Guided Busway will be strengthened to half hourly between St Ives and Drummer Street, with some earlier and later journeys that at present.

Buses will continue to operate every hour on Sundays, but the gap at midday will be removed so the service is regular throughout the day.

Some service C journeys will start or finish at Fenstanton.

From 2 September, Service C will not serve Cambridge Railway Station , Somersham or Hill Rise/Ramsey Road in St Ives.

Additional journeys, Railway Station to/from Addenbrooke's

With effect from today, Monday 5 December, the Whippet-operated service U has been rerouted to use the Busway between the Railway Station and Addenbrooke's Hospital (instead of operating via Hills Road). This greatly increases the number of journeys between these two points, although it's worth noting that it only operates Monday-Friday on this section of the route. The service operates roughly every 15 minutes from early morning to early/mid-evening (depending on your definitions!).

The U (officially called the "Universal") is sponsored by the University of Cambridge.

To download a timetable, follow this link.

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.

Stagecoach Route R

A year after it was introduced, bus route R, which provides a direct link between Trumpington Park & Ride and Cambridge Rail Station, has been pronounced a success by bus operators Stagecoach.



http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Bus-route-Trumpington-park-ride-Cambridge-railway/story-29202352-detail/story.html

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).

New pedestrian/cyclist links to/from Busway near Cambridge Railway Station

Two new links from near to the Busway at Cambridge Railway Station have recently opened and will benefit pedestrians connecting to/from Busway A, C & R services (as well as cyclists). One is a short link from south of the station to the east side of Hills Rd (likely to be of most use if you're heading to the Leisure Park area); the other is again from the south of the station, but starts south of the Hills Road bridge and goes through to Fitzwilliam Road/Clarendon Road (and from there to Brooklands Avenue).

There's a very handy summary in the current issue of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign Newsletter. More detailed descriptions and maps were provided in issue 117 (the paths numbered 1 and 4). Thanks to the CCC for documenting this and for making the information available.

I've been unable to determine whether these are public rights of way, permissive access paths or have some other legal status. Neither currently show up on the County Council's interactive map as rights of way/permissive paths.

New busway route starts 7 April

A new peak-hour bus route (service R) linking Trumpington park & Ride with Cambridge Rail Station starts tomorrow (7 April).

See article in Cambridge News.

Developers threaten guided busway cash

Brookgate, the major player in redevelopment of the area around Cambridge Railway Station, appears to be disputing its commitment to make financial contributions towards the guided busway and other transport initiatives, claiming that new legislation means it doesn't have to honour commitments agreed when it got permission for the CB1 development.

Of £2.4 million at stake, around £2.1 million relates to the busway. Brookgate argues that, as the busway has already been built, its contributions are no longer needed.

Read full article at Cambridge News.

Motorist drove onto busway at Cambridge Railway Station

Another motorist has driven onto the busway, this time at Cambridge Station. Information about is incident is tacked onto a longer story about the pedestrian hit by a bus near Histon a few days ago.

See Cambridge News here.

Pedestrian shortcut from busway to Cambridge Station

The Cambridge News reports that a steps are to be built linking the Hills Road Bridge with the guided busway path below. This will provide a pedestrian shortcut to/from Cambridge Rail Station. Due to the constricted site, a cycle path cannot be provided, but there will be a channel beside the steps allowing cyclists to wheel their bikes. Cambridgeshire County Council has voted £500,000 for the project.

Train times to St Ives 1969-70

For anyone who likes a bit of history, here is the timetable for the Cambridge to St Ives trains. The source is the British Rail's Eastern Region Passenger Timetable 5 May 1969 to 3 May 1970.

From St Ives to Histon, the buses are quicker than the trains, though not by much. But Histon to Cambridge Railway Station is 26 minutes by bus, compared with 8 or 9 by train.

Weekend fares

Whippet were offering a special fare of £1 single on either their busway services or on the old route via Bar Hill, on both Saturday and Sunday. This was great, as long as you knew not to buy a ticket from the ticket machines, which hadn't been re-programmed to offer the reduced fare. Unfortunately, some people had bought their tickets from the machines, so you can imagine they were not best pleased to discover about the cheap deal!

I had to go in to Cambridge early on Sunday so the 09.00 Stagecoach departure got me in earlier than Whippet's 09.25 via Bar Hill or 09.35 via the Busway. I discovered that the St Ives to Cambridge single has gone up from £3.20 to £3.50 - I don't remember any advertising about that. On the way back I benefitted from the £1 ticket.
Talking to a passenger who had tried to catch the Whippet Service C from Cambridge Railway Station. He hadn't realised that the busway stop is round the corner from the station in what looks like a building site. Maybe there is a sign posting issue here. He'd tried to flag the Whippet down as it emerged into Station Road - but it didn't stop for him. He then caught one of the citi buses into town and sprinted that last bit to the bus station.

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.