At the same time as Orchard Park resident Barry sent in his post earlier this month on the effects of "temporary" diversions on services to his part of the city, he also passed on some thoughts relating to the possible use of the southern section of Guided Busway in any plans for a busway (guided or not) to Haverhill - a topic that's currently under consideration. Here's what Barry has to say:
It’s a little over a year since the guided busway services expanded to take on the failing service to Royston, which had been suffering death by a thousand cuts and had been reduced to an irregular service mainly from Trumpington P&R. As it’s still here it looks like it succeeded in revitalising the route, and is another Busway success.
Regardless of other controversies, all the evidence is that a success of the guided busway is that services are able to support a higher frequency when they move to it; whether it’s St Ives to Cambridge, Trumpington P&R to the station, or now Royston. The southern guideway would do a really good job of moving passengers quickly from the City centre and the railway station to Addenbrooke’s and Babraham P&R or on to Haverhill. The busway only being able to take single decker buses and these routes currently served by double deckers is unfortunate, and some Haverhill passengers might miss the intermediate stops on the way through the city. But is it time the Busway got the opportunity to see if it could shine by attracting passengers to support an increased frequency on these routes too?
