Busway journeys only half what was anticipated

An article on the Hunts Post describes the numbers of people using the guided busway as ‘disappointing’. The projection of 20,000 passengers a day hasn’t been reached - with only 11,000 a day being recorded. One reason for this shortfall is undoubtedly the fact the the new town at Northstowe has not yet been completed, indeed it’s only just started. Even so, usage has increased by 8.7% since last year, and this was hailed  a ‘success’ compared with declining bus usage elsewhere.

See https://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/guided-bus-questions-over-numbers-1-5650934

Passenger numbers - good? bad? could be better?

This morning's (16 August) meeting of the County Council's Economy and Environment Committee is due to discuss the Finance and Performance Report to the end of June 2018. Now, before you nod off, or navigate to videos of cats doing cute things, I should point out that this is of some relevance to the Busway.

According to the report's appendix (documents are at item 7 of the meeting agenda if you want to follow along), the 12-month rolling total of passngers on the Busway to May 2018 is 4.1 million. In May, 351,373 passenger journeys were made. Since its opening in August 2011, some 23.7 million journeys have been made.

Now, it's a little unclear whether these statistics include journeys made on Busway routes when operating on regular roads (most of Whippet's "U" service, for example; or Stagecoach's trips north of St Ives). But regadless of that sort of complication when talking about statistics, Edward Leigh, of Smarter Cambridge Transport, has been looking more closely at the figures and has noticed that the current usage is only just half of what was projected at the time the Busway was first proposed.

You can read more about this in a Cambridge News report. And Edward Leigh was also interviewed by Trevor Dann for Cambridge 105 (yesterday, I think), and that interview (covering more than just passenger statistics, admittedly) has been made available as a podcast. And is worth a listen. You can find that podcast here.

Route "R" passenger numbers "over target"

Stagecoach reports that passenger numbers on Busway route R (Railway Station-Trumpington Park and Ride, rush-hours only) are running "over target". As Andy Campbell, MD of Stagecoach East, puts it: "In the second week of April this year, we carried over 1,600 passengers on the service – well over our target".

The full story is carried on the Cambridge Network website (a source of which I admit to being unaware until a few minutes ago).

Passenger numbers, year 3

The Cambridge News has obtained Busway passenger numbers for the year to 6 August 2014. They show usage at 3,457,354 - slightly below the County Council's target for Year 3.

There's no background, beyond what's in the Cambridge News piece, as these figures don't yet appear in any report to a County Council committee. And it's hard to know exactly what they cover. One of the opponents of the Busway is quoted as saying that they include all journeys made by "guided" vehicles (so including off-Busway routes), but no evidence is offered to support that view. (The same person seems to imply that there's something wrong in including "concessionary pass" travellers in the figures, simply because they don't pay directly for their journeys.)

Busway passes 6 million

The busway has now carried over 6 million passengers since it opened in 2011.

The Cambridge news quotes Councillor Ian Bates as saying, in effect, that the busway means you don't have to worry about traffic on the A14 and A428. If only that were true!  Has he never travelled on the busway when A14 gridlock has caused gridlock in Huntingdon and St Ives, with knock on effects on buses?

The busway does offer consistent times on the busway section, but off-busway conditions frequently cause problems.

Peter Lee of Whippet is calling for more segregated routes within Cambridge.

Cllr Bates also talks about providing other busway routes in the area, specifically links to the new Alconbury development.

View article here.

Busway and traffic levels on A14

An article has appeared in the Cambridge News suggesting that despite the heavy levels of passengers using the busway, traffic on the A14 hasn't declined. Read the article here.

Thanks to Hugh,  who is a regular reader of this blog, for identifying the relevant page on Cambridgeshire County Council's website that contains these figures here and  see the full Traffic Monitoring Report (published 14 May 2013) here.

Busway passenger statistics

This week's Hunts Post (21 August, page 16) says that the busway has carried 3,096,370 passengers in its second year of operation. This comes close to achieving the target of £3.15 million  which had been projected for the busway's third year of operation. Stagecoach reckons the high level of usage is due to reliability of the journey and the quality of the vehicles. Both Stagecoach and Whippet hope that usage will rise once the Northstowe housing development gets under way.

[correction added 17 Oct 2014 - the target should read 3.15 million not £3.15 -  see comments below]

Five millionth passenger

It seems that the Queen could have been the five millionth person to travel on the guided busway according to the Cambridge news here.

Busway statistics

Today's Hunts Post ( 27 February, page 2) reveals that the busway has now been used by 4 million passengers and they are expecting traffic to rise by another 500,000 this year. 2013 is expected to see 3 million passenger journeys. Councillor Ian Bates is quoted as saying: 'Four million passengers are proof that people are choosing the busway over other methods of transport'.

Hunts Post - 1 August

Four items of busway interest in this week's Hunts Post ( 1 August).

First ( page 6) , a letter from a resident of St Ives who has been using the bus to/from Huntingdon Rail Station for his daily commute. The new timetable has reduced the service to the station. he alos comments thta the buses don't comnnect well with the trains.  Stagecoach reply pointing out that the new evening frequency is the same as before, and that the Hinchingbrooke buses call at the stop on Brampton Road adjacent to the station. This isn't made clear by the published timetable though.

On page 14 are three articles about the busway.

Cambridgeshire County Council says that usage of the busway has been more than expected, reaching 2.5 million in the first year. They are expecting 3 million in year 2.

Whippet say their first year on the busway has been better than expected. Stagecoach.

Stagecoach refer to their heavy investment in vehicales and staff training. Their big question is - when will they get the return on their investment? In fact, they don't see that happening until the Northstowe development gets going.

Millionth passenger on busway

This week's Huntingdon & St Ives News & Crier (19 January, page 3) reports on the millionth passenger on the busway - Christine Chandler from Colne who was travelling from St Ives Park & Ride to Addenbrooke's with her father.

Elsewhere in the same issue (pages 12-13) Andy Campbell of Stagecoach reports that usage of the route has more than doubled (50,000 a week) compared with the old 15, 45 and 55 routes pre-busway (24,000 a week). Many of these journeys are being made by new bus users, people who would otherwise have driven to Cambridge via the A14. Cllr Steve Criswell says the county council is now wanting to increase the park & ride capacity, and hopes that the busway will eventually attract 3.5 million passengers per year.

One million passengers

According to today's Hunts Post ( 4 January, page 2) the busway will soon have carried its millionth passenger. Andy Campbell of Stagecoach expects they'll reach 2.5 million passengers in the first year, and so they have ordered some new buses. However, they haven't yet decide on the shape of future bus services.

The article also refers to a survey conduced by Pure Resourcing Solutions suggesting that the busway has opened up new job opportunities. Two thirds of those questioned would now consider travelling further to work. Only a quarter used the busway instead of their existing travel method, though 42% said they would in future.

On page 6 of the same issue is a letter from Tim Phillips, chairman of CAST.IRON, the organisation that campaigned for the St Ives railway to be reinstated as a railway, not a busway. He writes in response to a letter (Hunts Post, 21 December) complaining that the Huntingdon to Addenbrooke's bus journey is now slower than before the busway opened. Factors contributing to this sad state of affairs are

• two thirds of the bus journey is on ordinary roads and therefore subject to normal traffic delays
• there is no through service from Huntingdon to Addenbrooke's and 10 minutes has to be allowed fro changing buses
• the busway route out of Cambridge heads north east towards Milton and the science park, so after a few miles and several minutes of travel is actually no nearer Huntingdon than it was at the start, whereas Whippet services via the A14, Bar Hill and Fenstanton  get a head start on their way out of town

To those delay factors, I'd also add that the Cambridge-Huntingdon buses now make a lot of extra stops at intermediate villages, which slows them down compared with the old non-stop route along the A14.