Busway reopens 30 March - but with temporary timetables

At last! The "temporary" diversion, avoiding the Busway A14 overbridge, is finally going to be lifted, and services will revert to their original routes on Monday 30 March. This will be particularly important for Orchard Park passengers, who have been using the "wrong" stops for 9 months.

However, as previously mentioned, the introduction of Stagecoach's improved Busway timetables has been postponed for a second time. Instead - and for reasons that don't need spelling out here - a reduced service will be introduced on that date. What Stagecoach term an "enhanced Sunday service" will operate Monday-Saturday. It's not quite as bad as that makes it sound - there are certainly additional peak-hour services, and the evening journeys have been retained as well. Service R will be suspended. Sunday services continue unchanged.

Full details, including links to the temporary timetables, are available on the Stagecoach website.

Busway diversion extended YET AGAIN!

Some of those who read this blog may be old enough to remember the time before the Busway was closed between Histon and Orchard Park whilst Highways England worked on the A14 overbridge. Others will simply be too new/young to remember that time.

Well, guess what? The closure (and resulting diversion) is set to continue. According to Highways England: "The new anticipated re-opening date is early March." Keep that date in mind, and we can all return to it in, say, 3 weeks time.

Whilst it's Highways England that is responsible for the never-ending closure - and for preventing Stagecoach introducing new timetables (originally planned for 1 March, but presumably delayed until the diversion is removed) - the County Council hardly covers itself in glory either. At the time of writing, the Council's dedicated Busway website still maintains the fiction that the Busway will reopen in "mid-January". Don't passengers deserve better information than that (the relevant page doesn't seem to have been updated since late-October)? What's happening to money that large-scale developers (e.g. of the Eddington site) are required to pay the County Council for Busway operation/promotion/management?

Full details of the further delay, and Highways England's sort-of-apology ("high-level discussions are taking place on a daily basis"...), can be found in a Cambridge Independent news item.

New closure of cycle track

The busway cycle track between Histon and Orchard Park will close for a month while repairs are carried out. This is the section of busway affected by the A14 widening works, and has been closed to buses for half a year, with buses diverted meanwhile.
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cyclepath-guided-busway-a14-closure-17508409

Busway diversion extended - softly, softly

Those with good memories will recall that, at the last count, the Busway between Histon and Orchard Park was due to reopen next Monday, 4 November.

Well, guess what? That's not going to happen! I bet that took readers by surprise. Or not.

Yesterday, the County Council quietly updated their online "News" item on the closure to announce that the track will now reopen in "mid-January". Will it? Only time will tell...

Further closure, 17-18 August

Another weekend, another closure. And another closure with little advance warning.

The Busway will be closed between Park Lane and Station Road, Histon. All day Saturday and Sunday. As a result, the northbound stop can't be served - outbound buses will pick up at Station Road Stores instead.

Here's a link to the County Council announcement.

Busway closure/diversion period extended

My post of 17 June has been overtaken by events. Firstly, the County Council website did eventually get round to advertising the closure and associated diversion (but not until the day they started - so NO ADVANCE WARNING!). More importantly, what was previously two separate closure periods has now been transformed into one extended closure. But just when the closure ends is a matter of some confusion. According to the County Council the closure now carries on, uninterrupted, until 29 August. According to Stagecoach, the closure continues until the commencement of services on 1 September. According to the Cambridgeshire Live website, the closure is due to continue until 4 September. My interpretation of these varying dates is that the Highways Agency cannot be certain when the bridge works that are responsible for this closure will actually finish. All we know for certain is that they will continue for the next few weeks! Be prepared...

Forthcoming Busway closure/diversion - extended periods

The Busway will be completely closed between Histon and the Orchard Park "junction" (where the A/D and B/P usually diverge heading into the city) between the following dates:

22 June - 7 July inclusive
25 July - 3 September inclusive

Here's a link to the Stagecoach announcement which gives details of the necessary diversions and alternative stops. I presume the Whippet P will take the same diversion as the Stagecoach B.

There's nothing about this major closure on the County Council's Busway site.

Busway diversion Saturday 1 December

Stop closures and a diversion are in place on Saturday 1 December, until 14.00 (or possibly 14.30 - the County Council and Stagecoach seem to disagree about just when a normal service will resume).

Not for the first time, there's been little advance notice - the news item on the County Council website was posted just yesterday. And Stagecoach's announcement only appeared at lunchtime today.

Both the Busway and the maintenance track (bridleway) will be between Orchard Park and Histon. The Cambridge-bound stop at Histon will be closed.

For route B, this means that Cambridge-bound buses will use the Citi 8 stops at Histon Station (outside the paper shop) and near the Kings Hedges Road junction, omitting the Histon and both Orchard Park Busway stops. The outbound services will also use the Kings Hedges Road Citi 8 stop, but will be able to call at Histon Busway after rejoining the Busway at Histon Station.

Route A buses will divert through Orchard Park, using the normal Busway stops, but the wrong way round - so the stops on the south side of the Busway will be used by buses heading towards St Ives, whilst the north side stops will be for city-bound buses. This has the potential to catch one or two people out! The city-bound A will use the Citi 8 stop at Histon 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)

March diversions - what was done?

Stephen Lawrence asked - in a comment to the 9 March posting on that month's Busway diversions - if anyone knew what work was carried out. And lo, as chance would have it, correspondent RichardC provided some very interesting information about the two weekends of work at Histon, together with a number of further questions! If anyogone has further information, please post a comment or email the blog at: buswayblog@btinternet.com

Here's what RichardC reports:

"Quick update on closures over weekends of 17/18 and 24/25 March.  On the first weekend it appears that five beam sets to south-east of Histon overbridge (Bridge Road) were lifted and realigned.  On the second weekend the work concentrated on the area around the Cambridge-bound stop to the west of the bridge.

 

Attached image shows activity in the afternoon of 24 March. 

Lifting frames with hydraulic jacks, apparently under supervision of Ekspan of Sheffield who supplied the original close-tolerance bearing pads.

 

Clearly lifting the beam set is not easy.  At this location, buses will have braked to a standstill at the stop, then accelerated away.  In the mornings the buses will be full almost to capacity, so maybe the beams have shifted, and jammed tightly together?  Surprising to see puddles on the guideway, on what should be a very flat, level surface.  Also at a similar point on the maintenance track.  Wonder what is causing that?"

Busway diversions - weekends in March

Details have now been posted of this month's weekend diversions on the Busway.

In summary:

9-10 March: Between Longstanton and Oakington. But no changes to the stops served.
17-18 March: Between Histon and Milton Road, and with changes to pick up and set down locations
24-25 March: Between Histon and Milton Road, and with changes to pick up and set down locations

The maintenance track remains open at all times.

All services are affected. It's reasonable to assume that these diversions will involve extended journey times around the blockages, but as there's no mention of them on either the Stagecoach or Whippet websites, there's no further information about these. Unlike engineering works on the railways, the bus companies never issue revised timetables, so if you need to be somewhere at a specific time (a railway station, for example!), you're left to do the calculations yourself.

Further details are now available (at rather short notice) on the County Council website.

Partial closure, December 13

The Busway will be closed tomorrow, December 13, in the Histon area, between 1000 and 1600. This is to allow tree maintenance work to be carried out. (Some might suggest that this is not before time!)

Outbound services will use a temporary stop in Station Road, travel through Histon village, and then rejoin the Busway at Park Road. The reverse diversion applies to inbound services, although there's no need for any temporary stop in that direction.

I first picked this up from the Cambridge News. More detailed information (including a map) is also on Whippet's website. At the time of writing there doesn't seem to be any information about this on the Stagecoach "travel updates" page. Nor is it mentioned on the County Council's dedicated Busway web pages. (The Cambridge News reports that the diversion was announced on Twitter, but it doesn't show up if you follow the Busway-specific Twitter link on the County Council web page - which suggests the Council neglected to use its own preferred hashtag.)

Greenery (again)

Less than four weeks ago this blog carried comments by Paul Verbinnen on verge cutting along one section of the busway, the destruction of wildflowers and the lack of litter collection before any cutting took place.

Elsewhere, though, it's a lack of maintenance which has been causing problems. The Cambridge News reports the views of regular cyclist David Palmer that the rural cycle routes leading into the city are in a dreadful state. Included in his criticisms are the Busway between Histon and Oakington (Mr Palmer is a Histon resident), where overhanging brambles “pose a risk at face level" and weeds obscure the ground-level reflectors (something, without undertaking any research whatsoever, I seem to recall someone on this blog - or in the Comments - anticipating would be a problem when they were first installed).

Follow this link for the full story.

Maintenance work and bus diversions in the Histon/Orchard Park area

On Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th January, buses will be diverted near Histon, because of maintenance work on the busway track.

Bus route B will be unable to serve the Cambridge-bound stop at Histon and both the Orchard Park stops. Instead they will us the stop outside the shops near Histon 'station' and teh stop in Histon Road near the junction with Kings Hedges Road.

Route A will be diverted via Orchard Park.

Full details for Stagecoach routes can be found here.

Details for Whippet route C are here.

Things you see from the Guided Busway

A memorial to a journey from Cambridge to Impington over 200 years ago.

From the Guided Busway you can see some things not visible from elsewhere.

In a field to the north of the busway between Histon and the Orchard Park turning there is this memorial.

Photo: David Parish,    March 2015

Have you wondered what it is?

It remembers Elizabeth Woodcock, and her journey from Cambridge to Impington in 1799 which took over 8 days.

Why did her journey take so long?  And why should her memorial be in the middle of a field?

On Saturday Feb 2nd 1799, Elizabeth Woodcock was returning from Cambridge market, to her home at Impington, on horseback, in a snowstorm. She was thrown from her horse, and unable to remount. Being shaken, and numbed with cold, she took shelter under a hawthorn hedge, where she became completely covered with drifting snow. On Sunday morning she heard the church bells, and passers-by in the distance, but was unable to attract attention. On the Monday, she made a hole in the snow above her head, and tied a red handkerchief on a stick, and raised it as a flag. But she was not found until the next Sunday when the Parish Clerk discovered her, and got help to rescue her.

A memorial stone was placed at the location where she was buried under the snow. By 1849 it had become defaced by visitors carving their initials on it, so a replacement was made, and is the one now seen.

The main panel on the north side (away from the busway) is now almost totally obscured by lichen, but I have found an older photo https://www.flickr.com/photos/67722122@N03/6498707819/in/pool-1853634@N23/  which can be deciphered as follows:

IN MEMORY OF ELIZ WOODCOCK LOST ON THIS SPOT IN A SNOW STORM WHEN RETURNING FROM CAMBRIDGE MARKET ON FEB 2nd 1799. 

SHE WAS DISCOVERED 8 DAYS AFTER 7 FEET BENEATH THE SNOW ALIVE & IN POSESSION OF ALL HER SENSES.

AND DIED JULY 24^TH OF THE SAME YEAR AGED 42

There is also a plaque on "Woodcock House" - the thatched cottage where she lived, opposite Histon baptist church, remembering this event. 

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.

Engineering works affecting busway track between Histon and Orchard Park - 11 and 12 April

The section of busway between Histon and the Orchard Park junction will be closed during Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th April. This is to allow engineering works to the track.

Full details of the changes are given here.

Dangers of satnav

Another two instances of the dangers of over reliance on satnav have been reported in the Cambridge News, one on the short single track section of busway near Trumpington, and the other near Histon.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/London-taxi-driver-red-faced-cab-caught-car-trap/story-25876347-detail/story.html

Busway ticket machines - an update

It looks as though repairs are on the way for the non-functioning ticket machines on the busway. These notices at Histon and Swavesey say 'This machine is currently being re-commissioned, and is not in use' which I interpret as saying something is happening.

Histon

Swavesey

Passenger injured

A passenger was taken to Addenbrookes with back, head and leg pains, and a number of other passengers suffered more minor injuries as a result of an incident on the Busway yesterday afternoon (2 Oct). The driver was forced to execute an emergency stop to avoid colliding with a cyclist carrying his bike across the tracks near Histon. The Cambridge News has the full story, including an eye-witness report.