New timetable starting Sunday 1st April 2018

Stagecoach have publishedtheir new busway timetable, to come into operation on Sunday 1st April. Details at http://thebusway.info/pdfs/tt/ABNR-april2018.pdf

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.

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).

Timetable changes from 21 May - mostly Cambridge North-related

As anticipated, there are various timetable changes planned in connection with the opening of the Cambridge North railway station on 21 May. New timetables can be found on Traveline and the Stagecoach website, but there's no written description of the changes on the latter's "Latest Updates" page. Here's my attempt to summarise for you (although perhaps it would have been simpler just to wait for Stagecoach's own write-up!).

The easiest to describe is the new route "N", which runs Cambridge City Centre-Longstanton (and reverse), Mon-Sat only, and via Cambridge North. There are three journeys in each direction that extend to/from St Ives. The service runs every 20 mins from around 0700 to 1900 (since this service operates out of the Fenstanton depot, the earliest departures are from St Ives, and the latest from Cambridge). Within Cambridge, buses will do an anti-clockwise look - Emmanuel St, St Andrew's St, Gonville Place, Parkside, Emmanuel St. Note that this service does NOT serve the main railway station in Cambridge.

There is another new service "D" (not to be confused with the now defunct Whippet route "D"). This operates a rush-hour service from St Ives to Cambridge Railway Station (via Cambridge North) in the morning, and the reverse in the afternoon. There are 7 or 8 departures each day, Mon-Fri only, but significantly fewer during school holidays. However, the extent to which this is genuinely a "new" service is arguable, since it seems to incorporate some journeys that were formerly running as "A". So it's probably best to consider the "D" in conjunction with the revised "A". It's impossible to summarise the changes overall in this context, so I suggest eager readers simply have a look at the timetables and see how their journeys are affected.

One very specific change to the "A" is that the last three St Ives-bound departures, Mon-Sat, will divert via Cambridge North. For those heading out into the countryside, this is scheduled to add 2 minutes to your journey.

Sundays: more significant changes are coming here. The current "B" service on Sunday operates every 20 minutes. This will be reduced to a half-hourly frequency, with half-hourly "A" services (via Cambridge North) being added to the timetable. So an overall increase in frequency, with half of the journeys running via Cambridge North. Passengers from Histon and beyond will realise that the "A" is a quicker way to make it to Cambridge City Centre than the roundabout route the "B" takes (it can be quicker to take the Citi 8 from Shire Hall to Histon than the B).

Finally, the "R" continues to make its circuit around the station development - in from Trumpington via the Busway, then Station Rd, Hills Rd and back to the Busway. Rather late in the day, Stagecoach has decided to add the Hills Rd stop (opposite the Botanic Garden - opposite, indeed, the old Eastern Counties garage for those who were around in those days) to the schedule.

Timetable changes from 17 October

As reported last month, a temporary timetable (and altered route) is due to be implemented on Route R on17 October. The revised timetable is available here. This change is expected to last for around 3 months.

There's also one change on Route A from the same date. The 0815 journey from Longstanton P&R will now depart at 0825, and operate 10 minutes later throughout. For the updated A/B timetable, follow this link.

I notice that Whippet has also posted a new timetable for Route C, valid from 26 September, although I haven't been able to find any information about what's changed. Here's a link to the new Route C timetable.

So that's a clean sweep of new timetables then!

Route R - temporarily reduced frequency

Acoording to a report in the Cambridge News, service frequency on Route R,  between the railway station and Trumpington Park & Ride, is to be temporarily reduced from 17 October. This service has to turn round at the station, and the turning circle is being moved (or, possibly, removed), one consequence being that Route R services will have to venture out on to Station Road and Hills Road, with all that this means for journey times and (un)reliable timekeeping. So the service will operate on a 30-minute frequency, instead of the current 15 (this is, of course, only a peak-hour route, Mon-Fri).

All the partners involved are reported to be committed to restoring the original service "in the New Year".

There's no news of this change as yet on the Stagecoach website.

Stagecoach Route R

A year after it was introduced, bus route R, which provides a direct link between Trumpington Park & Ride and Cambridge Rail Station, has been pronounced a success by bus operators Stagecoach.



http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Bus-route-Trumpington-park-ride-Cambridge-railway/story-29202352-detail/story.html

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).

Stagecoach changes from 26 July

More changes from 26 July - this time courtesy of Stagecoach. These include the St Ives to Huntingdon Bus Station and Hinchingbrooke Hospital section(s) of routes A and B, and the relatively new route R (being retimed "following feedback received from users"). Full details, with links to the revised timetables, can be found on the Stagecoach website.