Guided buses serving Cambridge North Station

Timetables for the guided buses that will serve Cambridge North Station from 21 May can be viewed at https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/buses/bus-timetables/

There will be two completely new routes:

Service  D will run between Cambridge and St Ives via Cambridge North during peak periods Monday-Friday only - to Cambridge in the morning, and from Cambridge in the evening. Some of these journeys will start from or continue to some of teh towns and villages north and west of St Ives.

Service N will link Longstanton Park & Ride and Cambridge North throughout most of the the day Monday-Saturday. A few morning journeys will start from St Ives, and a few evening journeys will continue to St Ives.

Two existing routes will be amended to serve Cambridge North at certain times:

A few Service A journeys towards St Ives will serve Cambridge North, Monday to Friday early evening. Service A will run half hourly between Drummer Street and St Ives via Cambridge North on Sundays.

Citi 2 will serve Cambridge North daily.

Christmas and New Year bus timetable alterations

An outline of Stagecoach bus services operating in Cambridgeshire over the Christmas and New Year period can be found here.

New Whippet busway timetable

Whippet will be changing their busway timetable as from 1 October. You can see the new  timetable  here.

New busway timetable published

Stagecoach has published its new timetable for routes A and B due to start from 23 July. Timetable posted here.

Early morning journey from Somersham and Chatteris continue to be available, and a couple of new early morning services run from Ramsey and Warboys to Cambridge. There are similar return journeys to these places in the evening.

There are two buses an hour to Hinchingbrooke Hospital and one an hour to Peterborough.

Huntingdon Railway Station is served by only one bus an hour, but, of course, the Hinchingbrooke services stop on Brampton Road just outside the Station.

Changes to bus routes A and B in July

Stagecoach has announced its proposal for reorganising bus routes A and B in St Ives as from July, following introduction of some new vehicles. In order to provide a quicker journey to/from Huntingdon, the service B will be re-routed to miss out the top end of Ramsay Road and Hill Rise. Service A will be extended to Hill Rise, but will do a one-way loop by turning left at the Seven Wives, then right into Hill Rise then back into St Ives down Ramsey Road. This will mean that residents of the Hill Rise area won't have a direct bus to Huntingdon. Instead they will have to walk down to the Seven Wives, or catch the A to Seven Wives and change onto the B. (Hunts Post, 25 April, page 15)

Evening service

Yesterday was my first evening shift of the academic year, so my homeward journey was on the 21.35 Service B from Drummer Street.

Before the busway opened, this journey nearly always left on time and the got me back to St Ives between 22.00 and 22.05. Journey times that I have noted for this departure undvia the old route of Huntongdon road and the A14 ( 2, 16 & 23 November  and 9 December 2010) took 26, 24, 26 and 26 minutes respectively.

But yesterday the 21.35 was late arriving in from Huntingdon. It left Drummer Street at 21.42 (7 minutes late). We reached the guideway at Orchard Park East at 21.55 (11 minutes late) but gained a few minutes to arrive in St Ives Bus station at 22.14 (7 minutes late).

A journey which generally took 24-26 minutes via the A14, takes 32 minutes via the busway. So much for a fast, and efficient transport system.

The eastbound service was also running late, and I noticed passing Swavesey that the eastbound buses were showing as due in 7 and 75 minutes.

Is the evening the timetable is unrealistically tight ? I shall be monitoring the timings for evening journeys that I make.

Before the busway, the evening service could be run by two vehicles (just) and in my experience they could keep to time. They now have to do a loop round by Huntingdon Rail Station, as well as contend with the longer route and more stops via the busway and Histon Road. Hence the delay, which migh prove to be cumulative as the evening progresses.

This was my first trip on the busway in the dark. I was amazed at the number of rabbits on the track. 

Timetable changes from 4th September

Stagecoach have just announced improvements to the Sunday service starting from 4th September. Buses will run every 20 minutes (instead of hourly) between St Ives Bus Station and Drummer Street from 08.40 until 17.00, returning from Drummer Street 09.20 until 17.40.

However, the overall timings have been slowed down.

On Sundays, Cambridge to St Ives will take 36 minutes instead of 32, St Ives to Huntingdon is increased by 2 minutes, and Huntingdon to St Ives by 11 minutes.

On weekdays, most journeys starting at Huntingdon are allowed an extra 5 minutes - presumably to improve punctuality and even spacing of buses on route B, which hitherto tend to leave St Ives late. Of course, they often arrived late from Huntingdon in the old days, but usually drivers could catch up a bit on the A14.

Details on this web page
http://www.stagecoachbus.co.uk/timetables.aspx?serviceid=1528&locationId=35&from=&to=&locval=81