Boost to St Ives shops

This week's Huntingdon & St Ives News & Crier ( 1 September, 2011, page 13) reports that the busway has brought increased numbers of customers to the St Ives markets and to the town centre generally. Jane Bowd, St Ives town centre manager, hopes that this increase can be maintained. Responding to complaints that the traffic lights where the buses cross the bypass have been causing delays to motorists, Jane Bowd thinks the delays have not added greatly to the problem. Cllr Jonathan Salt thinks the problem may get worse when the school term starts. As a pedestrian user of those lights, walking from my house to catch the bus at the Park & Ride, I find the lights unbearably slow to change. They appear to give priority to road traffic rather than pedestrians. However, when a guided bus comes along, the lights change almost instantly.

Tuesday 9 August

Decided to use the 07.25 Service B from St Ives Bus Station. As was common with the old 55 route, buses arriving in from Huntingdon were often a few minutes late. And so it was today. We left at 07.25 reaching Orchard Park East at 07.54 (6 minutes late). Another 3 minutes were dropped in a traffic queue in Histon Road, waiting to get out onto Huntingdon Road.  Arrival time at New Square (08.11) was 9 minutes late. Counting the walk at each end, that's 50 minutes door to door.

Leaving St Ives, I noticed that the Whippet's 07.35 Service 5, was sitting in the bus station. Despite using the old route via Fenstanton, the A14 and Bar Hill, this bus beat us to Cambridge by a few minutes. I saw it whizz across the junction at Histon Road/Huntingdon Road as we waited in the queue.

There was a Whippet Service D ahead of us. Can anyone explain why Service D exists? It offers two early morning trips via Histon Road, but no corresponding evening trips. So they're clearly not looking for any two-way passengers.

Evening. Succeeded in getting the Service A from Parkside, which it left at 1705. Departure from New Square was at 17.07 (6 minutes late) but we didn't manage to make up time.  I alighted at St Ives Park & Ride at 17.40 (due 17.33). Again 50 minutes door to door.

Thats now 6 journeys I've made - and only one was on time.

Monday 8th August - travel to work

I decided to walk from the house to the Park & Ride ( about 4 minutes walk) because I wanted to experience the Route A which goes into Cambridge via Milton Road.

Free copies of the Cambridge News  were being given out at the P&R.

But there were only 6 passengers on board  when we left promptly at 07.38. I thought our speed was higher than yesterday, and we reached Milton Road at 08.00 pretty much on time. The bus called at Swavesey, Longstanton, Oakington and Histon only. No passengers for Fen Drayton Reserve or CRC.

The 0728 service, which has come in from Huntingdon, was running almost 10 minutes late, and we followed it in as far as Orchard Park where it diverged onto the Histon Road route.

I alighted at New Square at 08.09, 2 minutes early, and the bus set off immediately for Addenbrooke's not waiting for a passenger who was quite clearly running to catch it.

So, a punctual journey for me - but what if there had been heavy traffic on Milton Road?

Returning home in the late afternoon, I aimed for the 17.01 Service A which stops at  Parkside. This is very close to where I work. I saw the bus turn the corner as I crossed the end of East Road. But I was just too late. I walked briskly down to Emmanuel Road, and seeing the Service A still sitting at New Square sprinted along the road. It pulled out just as I got to the stop.

Next bus due was the 17.11 Service B. This consisted of 2 double deckers, both almost full to capacity. I boarded the second one which left at 17.15.  The Bridge Street bottleneck slowed us down, and Orchard Park wasn't reached until 17.33 by which time we had lost another 5 minutes. At Longstanton we overtook the other bus, then it caught up with us at St Ives Park & Ride - arrival time 17.51. There we sat for 4 minutes while passengers disembarked and bus officials chatted, I hope about official business. Arrival in St Ives Bus Station was at 17.57. Journey time 42 minutes, plus 4 minutes late start. Total 46 minutes. We had been due in at 17.43.

In the bus station I bumped into a friend waiting for the Needingworth bus. I asked him if the Whippet 1A had passed through. He said, yes, about 5 minutes before. It had passed the New Square stop as I waited.

So the Whippet - via Bar Hill, the A14 and Fenstanton  - took the same time as the new guided bus.

Not good.

Sunday 7th August - opening day

It was a fine sunny morning, and we caught the very first public departure from St Ives to Cambridge - the 09.00 service B. The bus left St Ives more or less on time at 09.01. There was a 3 minute stop at St Ives Park & Ride where the bus filled to capacity.  A relief bus followed ours from the Park & Ride.
Timings:
St Ives P&R   09.06
Fen Drayton   09.10
Swavesey       09.13
Longstanton  09.17-09.18
Oakington      09.22 ( did not stop)
Histon             09.27-09.28
Orchard Pk E  09.30
Orchard Pk W 09.32
Shire Hall       09.37
Round Church 09.40
New Square    09.41-09.42
Drummer Street 09.43

That's 43 minutes. We were due in at 09.32 - so 11 minutes late. Not a good start.

Impressions of the journey sitting upstairs in a double decker. A fairly smoothe ride, but some gentle oscillation when running at speed. A few slight jolts passing over some of the bridle track crossings. The bus had to slow down considerably at road crossing, where, of course the guideway has a break, and presumably there is a speed limit for re-entering the guideway.

I was astonished to realise that the reserve track running through the Orchard Park estate is not a section of busway, but merely a pair of concrete 'farm tracks' with grass up the middle. Speed on the 'farm tracks' seemed to be much less than 30mph.

Even on a quiet Sunday morning, it took us 13 minutes from Orchard Park East to Drummer Street compared withe the advertised time of 9 minutes.

Not a good start!

The return trip on the  12.35 from Drummer Street was eventful. The electronic display at the departure bay showed that the bus was delayed by 25 minutes. There was a Guided Bus sitting at the far side of the bus station but it did not drive over to allow the waiting passengers to climb aboard. I walked over to ask the driver if he was going to pick us up and he said he was 'the relief' bus and had to wait until the regular bus was full. This seemed a crazy bit of logic, but eventually he drove across, we boarded, and then set off at 13.46, 11 minutes late. This time the Bridge Street bottleneck meant that it took 19 minutes reach Orchard Park ( the timetable says 9 minutes). Progress on the busway was steady but sedate. And we alighted at St Ives Bus Station at 13.32, a journey time of 46 minutes ( timetabled 34 minutes). But if you add on the 11 minutes late start, that give 57 minutes for the journey.

This compares very badly with the journey times on Friday and Saturday by the old route.

Question - why are there no ticket machines at Drummer Street and St Ives Bus Station? Surely they'd speed up loading times at these busy places.

Friday 5 and Saturday 6 August

My last three trips on Stagecoach's number 55 service before the Guided Busway opened were on 5th and 6th August.

On Friday 5th, I caught the 17.15 from Drummer Street reaching St Ives Bus Station at 17.49 -- a journey of 34 minutes. This was quite fast for a rush hour journey out of Cambridge, but it's the height of the summer holidays, so the roads were quiet.

The next day, I caught the 11.05 from St Ives Bus Station. This did not leave until 11.14. I reached Drummer Street at 11.47, a running time of 33 minutes, 42 if you add in the fact that we were late leaving.

I returned from Cambridge on the 14.35 from Drummer Street - which sped back to St Ives in a mere 32 minutes.

On these three trips, Shire Hall to St Ives took 23-27 minutes.
Bridge Street and Magdalene Street are a bit of a bottleneck, with Drummer Street to Shire Hall taking 8-11 minutes.