Busway service B diversions in St Ives

Several roads in the centre of St Ives are being resurfaced this week, and as a result,  evening buses on route B are diverted. After 7pm they will not be calling at Station Road or St Ives Bus Station.

These buses will be running non stop between St Ives Park & Ride and the first stop on Ramsey Road north of St Audrey's Lane.

According to the second of these notices this arrangement will last until 24th August (except weekends). Presumably that means  buses will run as normal on Saturdays. But what about Fridays?

I travelled back from Cambridge this evening on the 22.33 service. There was nothing at the bus stop in New Square to say there would be a diversion.

When the bus reached St Ives Park & Ride, the driver made no announcement that the bus would not be calling at the Bus Station or other town centre bus stops.

At the time of me writing this, there is nothing on the Stagecoach website about this diversion, and nothing on thebusway.info website either.

A closer look at the new route A timetable

Stagecoach has been saying for a while that the busway route A would be extended to serve St Ives Bus Station and the northern part of St Ives. I got the impression that the bus route would form a loop turning left at the Seven Wives, then right into Hill Rise and right again to return towards Cambridge down the top section of Ramsey Road. 

However, the new timetable, as revealed on Cambridgeshire County Council’s transport pages (click here), seems to indicate that the buses won’t perform this loop, but will run either to St Ives Burrel Road or to Wyton Camp via Ansley way, which I think is bus-speak for one of the stops in Hill Rise. 

When I looked in detail at the timetable, it struck me that route A doesn’t provide a consistent service frequency throughout the working day to the northern end of St Ives. 

So what will the service be like? 

Monday-Friday departures from Wyton Camp will be at 06.20 then 07.20, then every half hour until 17.20, then 17.58, 18.28 and 18.58. There is an extra early morning journey starting from Ansley Way ( i.e. Hill Rise) at 05.57. But no 06.50 departure, which you'd think would be a peak travel to work journey. During this early morning period, several route A journeys towards Cambridge start from St Ives Bus Station.

From Burrel Road ( Mopnday-Friday) buses will leave at 07.40 (school days only), then 08.10 and every half hour until 17.10. So, as with the Wyton Camp service, a bit thin on the ground during the morning peak for passengers heading towards Cambridge. 

Heading out from Cambridge, the first A  of the day arrives at Wyton Camp at 08.11 then half hourly until 17.41 (which is the 16.27 from Trumpington and16.53 from Cambridge New Square). Then follows an inexplicable one-and-a half-hour gap when service A runs no further than St Ives Bus Station, forcing passengers from Trumpington, Addenbrooke’s, Cambridge Railway Station, Parkside,The Science Park and CRC, to have to change onto a B, which, of course, won’t take them further up Ramsey Road than the Seven Wives.  Later arrivals at Wyton Camp are at 19.11, 19.26, 19.56, 20.26, with two further journeys terminating at Ansley Way at 20.49 and 21.19. 

Arrivals at Burrel Road are at 08.51 then half hourly until 1721, which is the 16.38 departure from Cambridge New Square, and a bit early for most people finishing work. Curiously the Saturday service to both Wyton Camp and Burrel Road is steadier throughout the day, and there is no evening gap in service to Wyton Camp.

During the late evening, route B serves the top of Ramsey Road and Hill Rise as at present, with four trips in each direction Monday-Saturday. There is no change to the Sunday bus service.


I hope I have understood the new timetable correctly. As I mentioned in another posting, the old and new times are mingled together in a single timetable, which makes reading it difficult.

Real time information at St Ives Bus Station

On Friday I noticed that there is now a real time information screen at St Ives Bus Station. How long has it been there? It's tucked away in the waiting room, which might explain why I hadn't seen it before.

Traffic congestion, rat runs and developments at Godmanchester

A letter in this week's Hunts Post (1 February, page 6) draws attention to increasing numbers of motorists illegally using the St Ives Town Bridge as a rat run to avoid congestion on Harrison way caused by the busway traffic lights.

The writer also questions the wisdom of erecting a new bus stop in Station Road, St Ives.

This proposal, mentioned in an early blog post, is about installing a new bus stop outside Hyperion auction house. How exactly this will be achieved, the council has not yet revealed, but it seems to me that it must involve felling a number of trees,  widening the pavement, and narrowing the carriageway. Although Cambridge-bound busway buses will be able to avoid looping back into the bus station, all other buses arriving at the bus station will still have to turn that corner. So, while it might speed up some busway services, it may cause extra delays to other buses, and general motor traffic in Station Road.

A better solution surely would be to create extra bus bays on the north side of the bus station to allow busway service to Cambridge to avoid the loop.

St Ives Bus Station is too small for the number of buses currently using it. Perhaps some services currently terminating at the Bus Station could be extended to terminate at the Park & Ride, where there is plenty of space. They might have to take out the short sections of busway on either side of the Harrison Road light and put in rising bollards.

A second letter on page 6 refers to the Harrison Way lights causing tailbacks through central St Ives which in turn are causing busway services arriving in from Huntingdon and Ramsey Road to be delayed.

Elsewhere in this issue ( Hunts Post, 1 February, page 29) there is an article about the proposed development of 700 new house at Bear's Croft Farm on the outskirts of Godmanchester. It is well known that Godmanchester has a poor bus service, especially in the Cambridge direction. The developers, Fairfield Partnership, have annouced plans to improve the bus service in order to minimise congestion on the A14. They want 4 buses an hour at peak, and 3 at off peak to link Godmanchester with Huntingdon, plus 3 an hour at peak and 2 an hour off peak from Godmanchester to St Ives and the busway via Hemingford Grey. How these two proposed services, with conflicting frequencies, will work, is not clear to me.

A big drawback is that these services will have to traverse a short section of the A14 to get from Godmanchester to Hemingford Grey, and will therefore be subject to the usual delays when the A14 is blocked. Knowing that the Whippet route 1A/5 that currently runs via the A14 is just as quick as the busway services ( most of the time), does beg the question of how a Godmanchester to Cambridge via St Ives and the busway route could be fast and reliable enough to attract the Godmanchester commuter traffic. I know one person who commutes from Godmanchester to Cambridge who find that the best way is to drive to Madingley Park & Ride and bus from there.

New bus stop in St Ives Town Centre

Cambridgeshire County Council is proposing to build a new bus stop in Station Road, St Ives. (Huntingdon & St Ives News & Crier, 12 January, page 32)

This will be used by Cambridge-bound busway services, and by reducing pressure on St Ives Bus Station, will make it possible for Service A buses to terminate at St Ives Bus Station. At present most service A buses run to/from the Park & Ride and do not serve the bus station. Many passengers (including me) have to walk the quarter mile from the Park & Ride to the town centre.

Hopefully, the extended bus route will cut down on the number of pedestrians crossing Harrison Way and so minimise delays to motorists on the A1096. The change will also stop Cambridge-bound buses from having to loop around the bus station. This will cut 2 minutes from the journey time. Cambridgeshire County Council cabinet meets on 17 January and is expected to recommend the project to the Council.

Michaelmas Fair

Every year at the beginning of October is the Michaelmas Fair, when the centre of St Ives is taken over by a giant funfair. It lasts three days - Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday poses a bit of a logistical problem - the space used by the regular Monday market isn't available.

So what happens? The market moves into the bus station.

And what happens to the buses? They run to and from the bus stop in The Quadrant. This is the notice that appeared in the Bus Station - but no dates or times are given.

It does appear to implicate the District Council as the cause of the chaos

This bus stop is on a one way giratory road system, so buses bound for Huntingdon have to go right round the loop, which only adds to the traffic problems.

This year nobody had though to cancel the usual car parking on The Quadrant - so every time a bus called at the stop, all other traffic ground to a halt. The Quadrant bus stop really isn't designed for buses terminating or waiting for extended periods. Here is The Quadrant on Michaelmas Fair Monday.

So why is this crazy situation allowed to happen? Not easy to answer. But maybe its because markets, buses and roads are controlled by different bits of local government and nobody has thought to look at the problem as a whole.

The delays caused by The Quadrant situation must have contributed to delays on the busway.

As I had to travel in to Cambridge about 12.45 I decided not to risk catching a bus from The Quadrant, but instead walked to the Park & Ride for the 12.48 Service A - which left on time and got me to my destination on time.

St Ives Markets

Last week's Hunts Post highlighted the conflict between bus services and the markets in St Ives, specifically the fact that the Bank Holiday Monday market takes over the bus station, and buses have to load and unload in  a narrow street nearby. A letter in this week's Hunts Post ( (7 September 2011, page 7) takes up the theme.  The Michaelmas Fair happens in a few weeks' time, when again the bus station is usually closed to buses.The writer notes that over 80 buses  are timetabled for a Bank Holiday Monday, and more than 100 on the Michaelmas Fair Monday. He challenges Huntingdonshire District Council, which runs both the markets and the bus station, to clarify their intentions about use of the bus station.

Punctuality and unpunctuality

Today was the first day of the new school term, so the buses were a bit busier than last week. We also have a new timetable.

I decide to catch the 07.40 service A from St Ives Bus Station, the new service starting from Hill Rise presumably to relieve the overcroweded service B.

The 07.35 B left on time - I saw it leave as I walked to the Bus Station.

Last week the B was always late and the A on time, but today, the A was late. It didn't leave until 07.50, dropping me at New Square at 08.25, or 9 minutes late.