Yet another weekend, Yet another diversion

This weekend, a different diversion for the A, D and Citi 8 bus services due to the work on Histon A14 roundabout.

Details are here https://www.stagecoachbus.com/service-updates/serviceupdatesarticle?SituationId=ID-19/09/2019-16:20:27:614

However, I would say that the details for the replacement services are, as usual with Stagecoach, vague.

Take this shuttle ‘along the A route between Cambridge City Centre and Orchard Park’. What times does it run and why isn’t it arranged to allow passengers travelling to St Ives to change at Cambridge North. Surely that would make more sense. Specific times for the ‘shuttle’ are needed.

Last night I travelled out of Cambridge on the 22.25 departure for St Ives. After picking up and dropping passengers at the Histon Road stop near Orchard Park, we then diverted through Orchard Park West, Orchard Park East, CRC and Science Park (non-stop, of course), then out along the A10 to the Milton Recycling facility, and in through Impington( a narrow twisty. road), to rejoin the normal route at Histon. This added an extra 15 minutes to the journey time.

Do Stagecoach create a revised timetable to account for these scheduled delays, or do they simply allow the bus service to become chaotic?

In my observations, they generally allow the buses to become chaotic.

I also take issue with Stagecoach over the lack of public information at bus stops about the diversions, particularly the effect this has on travel to/from the Orchard Park stops because of the contra flow route swap between the A/d and B services.

Train companies are penalised for this delays like this. Why not buses?

Another weekend, another diversion

The title of last week's post was rhetorical. For lo, another weekend closure and diversion looms.

On September 14 and 15 the Busway will be closed between St Ives and Swavesey. The nature of the diversionary route - the lack of public roads (!) - means that the Fen Drayton Lakes stop cannot be served at all.

No details have been given of the revised timetable that will result from this quite extensive diversion.

Is there no end to the diversions?

SO,...yet again there's a Busway closure this weekend - this one's between Oakington and Longstanton and will last all day Saturday and Sunday.

The County Council's announcement claims that "all services will be running as normal", but as the diversionary route takes several minutes longer than the direct Busway route, it's hard to take this statement at all seriously. Indeed, one wonders why the County Council feel it's necessary to make this sort of false statement Wouldn't passengers - or those who haven't given up in disgust following a summer of closures and diversions - rather be given accurate, reliable and, above all, truthful information, rather than this misleading spin? Feel free to offer your thoughts in the Comments!

NB: the closure applies equally to buses, cyclists and pedestrians. And, presumably, horses as well.

Diversion - Cambridge Parkside

I'm late passing this one on!

Since earlier this week Busway services have been unable to serve Cambridge Parkside - this is served only by route A & D buses heading to Cambridge North and the St Ives area. This is due to roadworks (which have been reported in the local press - and personally by my wife! - as causing significant disruption.

Services are stopping at the Regent Street stop instead, before resuming the usual route at Parker Street.

Stagecoach report that the diversion is expected to operate from 10 April for *approximately 10 days". It's worth noting, however, that the permit authorising these works on the carriageway is valid until 22 April (to allow them to overrun, perhaps?).

The times they are a-changing' (yet again...)

I'm sure Bob Dylan didn't have Stagecoach in mind when he wrote his influential song (and yes, I do realise Stagecoach didn't exist in 1964). But it's certainly appropriate, as another clutch of timetable revisions is set to be introduced on 13 January.

Here are the details from the Stagecoach website:

"There are minor adjustments to morning peak hour departures to accommodate additional journeys between St. Ives and Cambridge. There are also changes to journeys in the evening peak to accommodate additional journeys between Cambridge and St Ives. There are additional minor changes to evening peak journeys from St. Ives Hill Rise, Marley Road and Ramsey Road towards St Ives Town Centre. Route A departures on Sundays have been re-named to Route D and will serve Milton Road stops. The Route A to Buckden will now depart St. Ives Bus Station at 18:08 and will serve stops 12 minutes earlier throughout the journey. The 1450 from Huntingdon to Peterborough (M-F) journey will now depart 5 minutes later and will serve stops 5 minutes later throughout."

The revised timetable is also available for download from Stagecoach.

Busway service "shot at"

I realise this is close to being "old news" by now - in my defence I've been out of the country... - but there's a report on Cambridgeshire Live of a Somersham-bound D service being hit by a shot from an air rifle on the evening of 10 October. Now it's a little unclear whether this was, indeed, an air rifle shot, or some object thrown at the bus. But whatever it was caused damage to the bus, in the form of a broken window, and alarmed some of those onboard. The incident appears to have happened between Oakington and Longstanton.

Passengers were transferred to a following service.

Changes to Stagecoach busway Routes A and N

I was wondering why I hadn’t seen a route N bus for a while. and had noticed that some Route A buses in the middle of the day were diverting via Cambridge North Station and calling at all bus stops along Milton Road.

It turns out that for some weeks, the N has been ‘temporarily’ discontinued. This comes as no surprise as it never had more than a handful of people on it, and the fact that it served Cambridge North was scarcely advertised.

Departure sheets posted at bus stops don’t indicate which buses serve Cambridge North.

The timetable for the A,B,N and R services valid from 29th July (here) shows the N as still running, but includes an extra mini timetable,  after the ‘village’ timetable pages, for the variant As which replace the N and starting from 14 August.

Today, while cycling, I stopped at Longstanton Park & Ride. In the Cambridge-bound waiting shelter a paper copy of this extra mini timetable has been pasted up, but no information that the N no longer runs.

What a shambles! First of all, Stagecoach fails to provide a frequent service between St Ives and Cambridge North. Then it extends the N to St Ives P&R. Then it replaces the N with an occasional diverted A soon to be re-named as the D.

Why don’t Stagecoach run every A to/from Cambridge North? That way, St Ives would have a much improved access to trains to London, Ely, Norwich and Kings Lynn.

Nor is Stagecoach providing a viable service from the northern suburbs to Cambridge North. OK, the Citi2 goes to Cambridge North. But how about extending the Citi1 and the 9/X9 to Cambridge North as well?

The new A,B,D,R timetable, valid from 16 September, can be viwed here here.

Timetable changes - 16 September

Stagecoach have announced a series of changes to the A and N services from 16 September. The new timetable isn't currently available, either from Stagecoach or Traveline. Here's the Stagecoach announcement:

Service N will no longer operate. The peak time N's will be renamed to Route D and have been re-timed. These will continue to serve all stops along Milton Road. The Off-Peak N's will be replaced by a diversion of the Route A once an hour via Cambridge North Station. These will also be renamed to Route D and will also serve all stops along Milton Road.
In order to maintain a 15 minute service on Route A, all Route A journeys have been re-timed between Trumpington Park & Ride and the Science Park in both directions. The Buckden journey in the afternoon will now be split at St Ives bus station. This is to enable customers who finish work at 5 at CB1 to catch a later bus and change in St Ives as these changes will see the A's depart earlier. The last A's to/from Royston are renumbered D's.

Timetable changes - busway services

Stagecoach have announced some timetable changes which affect services on the guided busway, starting from 17 September.

Busway A - The journeys on route A departing St Ives bus station at 0636/0706 Monday to Friday, returning from Hinchingbrooke Hospital at 1900 will be diverted to serve RAF Wyton and Houghton village. This is following the withdrawal of route 45 by Whippets Coaches. There is also a new journey from Boxworth into Cambridge (via St Ives and the Busway) Monday to Friday, departing Boxworth at 0644, serving Elsworth at 0649 and Hilton at 0657. The 1733 from Central Cambridge is extended to serve these villages.

Busway A/B/D - Journeys numbered D which operate via Cambridge North Station will no longer serve the station. These will now be renumbered route A. There are also changes to Sunday services beyond St. Ives. These journeys will depart 5 minutes later and arrive minutes later throughout.

Busway N - This service will continue to operate every 20 minutes into Cambridge first thing in the morning. Buses will now operate hourly throughout the day. This reduction is due to a lack of passengers using the service after the morning peak.

Busway R - Changes to early morning journeys in order to allow more time for passengers to connect with trains at Cambridge station following changes to the platform of London bound trains.

The new timetable can be viewed here:
https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/East/FENSTANTON/The%20Busway%20-%203%20SEP%202017%20-%20COMPLETE.pdf

The announcement from Stagecoach can be viewed here:
https://www.stagecoachbus.com/service-updates/serviceupdatesarticle?SituationId=ID-21/08/2017-09:26:43:529

Stagecoach changes from 18 September

Stagecoach are introducing a number of changes to their Busway services from 18 September.

Busway A/B/D - Journeys numbered D which operate via Cambridge North Station will no longer serve the station. These will now be renumbered route A.

Busway N - This service will continue to operate every 20 minutes into Cambridge first thing in the morning. Buses will now operate hourly throughout the day. This reduction is due to a lack of passengers using the service after the morning peak.

Busway R - Changes to early morning journeys in order to allow more time for passengers to connect with trains at Cambridge station following changes to the platform of London bound trains.

The main change here is a significant reduction in the number of buses serving Cambridge North station.

New timetables aren't available yet, but are likely to be posted on the Stagecoach website shortly.

Update from Stagecoach about the revised busway services

Stagecoach have just sent out an update message by email which summarises the changes to the busway timetable resulting from the opening of Cambridge north Station. You can read it at this link .

New timetable showing busway buses serving Cambridge North station

The new timetable, which starts on Sunday 21 May, for busway services that will be calling at Cambridge North Station has been posted on Cambridgeshire County Council's busway website http://www.thebusway.info/ .  This includes all journeys on routes A, B, D, N and R.

Click on this link http://thebusway.info/pdfs/tt/AB-may2017.pdf

The timetable is also available on Stagecoach's website at https://tiscon-maps-stagecoachbus.s3.amazonaws.com/Timetables/East/HYBRIDS/The%20Busway%20Complete%20-%20HYBRID.pdf

The pdf shows the current timetable ( i.e. valid until 20 May) followed by the new timetable ( but no start is shown on the pages listing new services D or N and revised services A, B and R).

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.

Whippet changes from 26 July

It's been a long time coming - indeed, it was back in mid-March that Andrew first reported that Whippet were planning changes to their services, including Busway C and D. Now it's reported that those changes will be implemented from July 26.

According to Whippet:

Buses will no longer operate as route D. All our guided buses will now be route C via Science Park. The journey to Long Road Sixth Form College will operate on all weekdays, not just college days, and will use The Busway between Cambridge Station and Addenbrooke’s Hospital to avoid the traffic on Hills Road.  Between the guided busway and Long Road College buses will serve bus stops on Robinson Way outside the Rosie Hospital.  The afternoon journey will be delayed by 10 minutes to give students enough time to reach the bus. The daytime pattern of departures will also now apply on Saturdays and will be complimented by the revised route 1A running on the opposite half hour, resulting in a 30-minute service from Cambridge Railway Station to St Ives.  The midday journey from Cambridge to Somersham will run an hour later, giving more time in the city. Times of route C from Cambridge City Centre in the evenings are adjusted slightly. Route 1A will provide later journeys to St Ives including a new 18:40 departure from Cambridge Railway Station.

So Route D is now "dead".

More information, including links to the new timetable, on the Whippet website.

Diversion, Cambridge city centre, 10-19 May

Round Church Street, in the centre of Cambridge, is to be closed from 10-19 May to allow carriageway resurfacing and telecoms installations works to be carried out. A number of bus services that enter/leave the city via Bridge Street will be diverted during this time, reaching/departing the city centre via Victoria Avenue instead. These include Busway B (and although, the County Council's announcement doesn't mention it, surely this must affect Busway D as well?).

New Whippet busway timetable

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