Delays yesterday at Oakington

Yesterday, busway services were affected by the Wings for Life event. Two buses in each direction were held up waiting for the runners to pass. The bus I was on was 30 minutes late reaching St Ives.

Road works affecting busway services 9-12 November

Road works in Houghton Road west of St Ives will cause some delays to evening services on busway route B and cancellation of two journeys on route A.

Full details here.

Delays to busway services

Regular users of the busway will be aware that the buses don't run every 7-8 minutes as they are supposed to. A whole lot of delays occur, usually as a result of road conditions  elsewhere.

There is a good example in this week's Hunts Post (11 December, page 11). It's about parked cars blocking Cowper Road, Huntingdon, a small residential street that, because of Huntingdon's one-way street system forms part of the westbound Busway B route. The photo shows 4 Bs waiting to get through. That's an hour's worth of buses! OK, they're westbound, but that means their return journeys towards Cambridge will subsequently be delayed.

Chaos on busway

Bus services on the busway were not running according to timetable this morning, presumably as a result of accidents on the A14 and M11.

There is a report about the accidents here.

Travelling from Cambridge to St Ives about 12 noon, I had to wait 25 minutes at New Square before a bus to St Ives appeared (an A). In all that time I did not see a B or a C going in the St Ives direction. While I was waiting, there were no buses heading in the opposite direction either.

Any other busway users affected by this disruption?

Earith flooding

As users of the busway, and readers of this blog, will be aware, the recent flooding of the main road through Earith caused huge traffic queues in St Ives which affected the punctuality of busway services. This is a regular feature of life in this area unfortunately, and happens once or twice a year whenever the River Ouse is in flood.

Today's Hunts Post ( 5 December, page 7) prints several letters  urging the County Council to build a causeway or bridge at Earith that will ensure the road is never under water.

On page 9 of the Hunts Post (5 December) is an article outlining previous attempts to build a causeway at Earith. It seems they were rejected for reasons such as - the floods were only 2-5 days a year, or  a causeway would impede water flowing out into the Ouse washes.

Traffic congestion in St Ives

The  road at Earith, closed by flood water, seem to be having a knock-on effect on traffic in St Ives, and buses heading for the busway are being severely held up during the morning rush hour.

This image ( by Brendan Boyle) shows two buses in stationary traffic in Ramsey Road, St Ives, this morning ( 28 November). There were three As, two Bs, a C and a 22 in the traffic jam. The bus due to leave Station Road, St Ives at 0737 for Cambridge did not arrive in Cambridge until about 0900 - for the second day running!

And this one shows huge numbers of passengers waiting at Station Road, St Ives, for the buses that were held up in the traffic. Around 0830.

Guided bus comes off track

A guided bus was 'derailed' today on the busway just west of Longstanton. See Cambridge News for a very brief report. Buses were hugely delayed. There were no injuries.

A fuller version of this report is in the print edition of the Cambridge News ( 21 November, page 3). This refers to the possibility that the driver may have been taken ill.

A BBC report adds some information. The driver apparently misjudged the entrance to the busway and had to be taken to hospital. The bus was left at a 45 degree angle.

The incident is reported also on the Hunts Post website and in this week's Hunts Post ( 21 November, page 11).

I caught the 1644 A from New Square - it was already about 15 minutes late leaving Cambridge. Buses were diverted off the busway at Longstanton, via Ramper Road and through Swavesey village to rejoin the route just west of Swavesey Busway Stop. This added a further 10 minutes delay to the journey.

Another passenger waiting at New Square told me he had been waiting  over an hour for a bus to RAF Wyton.

Delays on busway due to accident on A14

A fatal accident in which  two trucks collided on the A14 between junctions 32 and 33, had a knock on effect from busway passengers this evening. Traffic ground to a halt on Milton Road and buses leaving Cambridge on routes A and C were delayed. I was on the 16.53 from New Square, which did not reach the Science Park until 18.40. Arrival into St Ives was at 19.00, 1 hour 35 minutes late. See report in Cambridge News.

Although the busway has effectively bypassed the Fenstanton-Girton section of the A14, Milton Road is still susceptible to delays when there are problems on the A14. There are few options for buses diverting from their normal route to avoid Milton Road ( e.g. Gilbert Road and Arbury Road) but on this occasion my bus was past Arbury Road before the traffic came to a standstill.  I was not aware of any radio communication between the bus driver and the busway control centre at Longstanton.

The lorry driver killed in the accident has  been named as Richard Plumb (52) from Bury St Edmunds. See Cambridge News.

Delays

In the last week or two, timekeeping of the Stagecoach buses on the busway at peak times has got worse and worse. It's not been helped by the roadworks in Hills Road, Cambridge.

Today I boarded an A at Parkside at about 17.05. This was heading for Marley Road, and although it was running more or less on the schedule of the Chatteris service, it must have been the previous Marley Road service. So it was running a full 30 minutes late.

While waiting for this bus to arrive, I noticed that three As were show as getting close - in 11, 12 and 13 minutes respectively. By the time I whipped my camera out, the display had changed to buses due in 8, 11 and 12 minutes.

Anyone else with tales of late running buses this week?

Delays to busway services

While buses on the busway regularly travel the St Ives-Milton Road section in 20-22 minutes, punctuality of buses has always been affected by road conditions elsewhere. On Thursday 5 April an accident,took place on Milton Road, Cambridge about 2.49pm forcing busway routes A and C to be diverted via Victoria Road, Histon Road and Kings Hedges Road. I travelled home from work on the 16.59 Service A, boarding at Parkside. Fortunately traffic levels were light, and the notoriously slow and congested junction at Victora Road/Histon Road was flowing smoothly. My bus reached St Ives about 10 minutes late. The diversion route ran parallel to the Orchard Park (un)guided busway, and it was noticeable that we covered that section much faster than the regular Service B which is slowed down by the lack of guide kerbs and by numerous crossings and traffic lights. Passing the back of eth CRC stop, I noticed a number of passengers waiting who usually travel on the same bus I do. By the time my Stagecoach bus had reached CRC, these people were no longer on the platform. They had been picked up by the Whippet C running just ahead of my bus - so some evidence perhaps of the two rival bus companies co-operating unofficially. A report of the unfortunate accident which caused these delays can be seen at here.

Busway traffic lights

Last week's Hunts Post (16 November, page 7) has printed five letters from St Ives and Fenstanton residents about delays to road traffic at the point where the busway crosses Harrison Way. Drivers say they are experiencing longer delays due to the traffic lights, and  extra traffic heading along Meadow Lane towards St Ives Park & Ride. There is criticism of pedestrians crossing Harrison way to join buses starting from the Park & Ride.

One correspondent, who travels from  St Ives to work in Papworth finds her journeys extended by 10-15 minutes. But what alternative does she have? The bus service between St Ives and Papworth is infrequent, and it too is presumably affected by the delays.

The busway has undoubtedly improved public transport along one single travel corridor - but in other directions bus services are poor or non existent so people are still faced with having to commute by car.

Then there is the St Ives road network - only 4 routes in/out town. With so many St Ives residents working outside of St Ives, is it any wonder there are traffic queues at rush hour?

There is a suggestion in response to last week's comment about delays to Olympic lorries - why not reschedule the lorry trips to avoid the rush hour?

Busway delays Olympic runs

This week's Hunts Post reveals that the busway is delaying transport of construction materials from Marshalls in St Ives to the Olympic Games site in London - 30 HGVs of materials per day, and, of course, 30 return trips empty.

Chris Annis of Marshalls claims this is due to the traffic lights where the busway crosses Harrison Way, plus cars parking in Meadow Lane. The lights are also causing delays back  to the Manchester Arms. Bob Menzies of Cambridgeshire County Council does not believe the lights are causing these delays, and says that the Council has no record of Marshalls having complained about this matter.
(Hunts Post, 9 November, page 8)

Of course, if the railway had been retained, then this material could potentially have been transported by rail.

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. 

Traffic problems

Friday's journey from Cambridge to St Ives illustrated the problems that the bus companies face in trying to run their bus services.

I travelled on the 16.30 Service B from Drummer Street. We were 2 minutes late starting from Drummer Street, and 4 minutes late leaving New Square. Both these delays were the result of slow loading: there are no ticket machines at Drummer Street and New Square, so drivers have to issue tickets and give change.

New Square to the Shire Hall took 14 minutes - due to congestion in Magdalene Street, where there is a short single track section in a road used by dozens of buses every hour. The traffic lights changed from red to green about 6 times before we got through to Castle Hill.

Traffic was extremely slow in Histon Road -  6 minutes from Huntingdon Road to the end of Gilbert Road.

So 30 minutes from Drummer Street to the busway at Orchard Park. Not good. But how can this problems be avoided without  measures to reduce traffic in the Magdalene Street/Histon Road area?