V2 feeder service extended (and off-peak services added) to/from March, starting 1 March

Stagecoach, in collaboration with the Combined Authority, is extended the V2 Busway feeder service to/from March from Monday 1 March. Off-peak (daytime) services will also be added to the service.

The new timetable will see four March-St Ives services, plus the early morning Chatteris-St Ives run. In the opposite direction there will be five services to March, plus a 1910 departure from St Ives, terminating at Chatteris.

For more information, see the Stagecoach Busway web page. And the new timetable can be found here.

Stagecoach changes from 3rd January

Stagecoach are making further changes to Busway services from 3rd January. Some (but be careful - NOT ALL) journeys on route C will begin from/terminate at Huntingdon, rather than running only to/from St Ives. This will provide additional capacity during peak travel times whilst route B is being operated by single-deck vehicles.

Full details, and revised timetables, are on the Stagecoach website.

Whippet changes from 19 October

Whippet, in conjunction with the University of Cambridge, have announced changes to the timetable for the U (Universal) service, which uses the southern section of Busway as part of its route between Eddington and the Biomedical Campus. The changes take effect on Monday 19 October.

Peak-hour services will operate Monday-Friday every 12 minutes. The frequency of services at other times of day and at the weekend are unchanged. Journey times are being extended to reduce late running. Weekend operation to/from the Biomedical Campus, introduced in late March, is retained.

The new timetable can be downloaded from the Whippet website.

Services have already returned to operating via Addenbrookes Outpatients, although this may not be stable, depending on future infection rates and Hospital needs.

According to the University's Travel Newsletter:

The University will be increasing funding for the Universal Bus service over the next four months which, combined with funding from the Government COVID-19 Bus Service Support Grant (CBSSG) Restart package will enable the route to run every 12 minutes throughout the morning and evening peak periods, while maintaining the weekend services to CBC that we began running during the national lockdown in March. The additional funding will allow the level of service provided by the Universal to be maintained as the roads get busier again and the number of passengers carried on each service is reduced due to social distancing requirements on board.

Busway timetable changes from 1st November

 Stagecoach have announced a revised timetable to commence from 1st November.

Core busway routes A, B and C will connect. with feeder services to/from various smaller towns and villages near St Ives and Huntingdon.

Changes include - increase frequency between St Ives and Cambridge, and later journeys on Sunday evenings. On the other hand, it seems that Huntingdon Rail Station is no longer served directly —passengers wishing to transfer to rail services there would have to use a Hinchingbrooke bus and alight at the nearest stop in George Street, Huntingdon.

Details at https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/east/busway-and-connecting-services#

Major changes to routes and timetables from 30 August

Stagecoach have announced some major changes to Busway services from 30 August. Full details, all new/revised timetables, and a route map, are on the Stagecoach website. What follows is a summary.

There are two main changes:

Busway-fitted vehicles will, in future, operate only on the Busway, also between St Ives Park & Ride and either Marley Road or Hinchingbrooke Hospital, and - within Cambridge - between the two sections of the Busway. This means that Busway vehicles will no longer provide feeder services to the rural areas beyond St Ives or to Peterborough and Royston. Rural connections will be provided by new services V1-V4 (serving, respectively, Ramsey, Chatteris, Somersham and Boxworth), operating a similar service to the existing "through" workings, but requiring passengers to change at St Ives. Would-be passengers should note that Stagecoach do NOT guarantee these connections, which could be an issue for commuters heading home in the afternoon, as these are the last services of the day to these destinations. There's also a new service V5 providing a an early-morning service from Godmanchester and late-evening return journeys - but these will operate through from Cambridge (as a "B" as far as Hinchingbrooke Hospital), so no change of vehicle will be required. Peterborough will be served by service 904 from St Ives - this will operate via Houghton village, but otherwise follow the main road between St Ives and Huntingdon and not divert via the estates (which will continue to be served by route B). In a reversion to earlier practice, Royston will be served by a separate Royston/Cambridge service, the newly-established 915.

The A and B routes are being switched. In line with the revision originally planned for March (but not implemented at the time), the A will in future operate via Shire Hall (although, because of the Histon Road closure, Cambridge-bound journeys will travel via the Science Park for the next year or so). The B will serve Cambridge North station. The A (single-decker buses) will continue to serve the main Railway Station and the Biomedical Campus, whilst the B (double-deckers) terminates in Cambridge City Centre.

And, just to note, services D and R will cease completely from 30 August (the R has been suspended since the early days of the pandemic).

Finally, a reminder that maps and timetables, and more detailed explanations of the changes, are on the Stagecoach website

Changes from 14/15 June

Important changes from 14/15 June.

1, Stagecoach timetable changes (from 14 June)
The R remains suspended. There are more frequent services on routes A, B & D. Click here for more information, and here for the new timetables.

2. Concessionary pass holders (from 15 June)
The County Council is removing the temporary exception that allowed concessionary pass holders to travel before 0930 Mon-Fri. If you need to use the bus to access one of the early morning supermarket slots reserved for the elderly you'll have to pay to use the bus to get there (and possibly back).

3. Face coverings (from 15 June)
Face coverings will be compulsory on all public transport from 15 June.

There is reduced capacity on buses as a result of physical distancing requirements.

Stagecoach timetable changes from 10 May - southern section

Stagecoach are making further changes to the Busway timetable - this time affecting only the southern section of the Busway. I'm guessing that the continuing lack of traffic within Cambridge city means that schedules can be further accelerated (and long may that continue, if not the underlying reason...).

So, from Sunday 10 May, buses will operate 5 minutes earlier from Cambridge rail station through to Trumpington Park&Ride and Royston. In the opposite direction, buses will start 7 minutes later and run 7 minutes later throughout between Royston/Trumpington Park&Ride and Parkside.

The latest version of the temporary Busway timetable is available here

Stagecoach timetables from 5 April

Further significant shrinkage of Stagecoach's Busway services will take place on Sunday 5 April.

In addition to timetable changes, there are route changes. And it's worth noting, in particular, that Pine Hills, Brampton and Buckden will no longer be served (although the 66 provides an alternative service for the last two of these).

The list of changes is too extensive to document here. Instead, if you need to travel, there is a full explanation on the Stagecoach website.

And you can download a copy of the temporary timetable here,

Whippet - temporary changes from 30 March

Whippet operate the Universal (U) service, whose route includes the Busway section between the main railway station and the Biomedical Campus. From today, 30 March, there are (temporarily) minor changes to the weekday timetable, to take account of the much emptier roads (which means taking the slack out of the timetable).

At weekends, the U will serve the Biomedical Campus on both Saturdays and Sundays - this will be the first time that any of the southern Busway has had regular Sunday services. In addition, weekend services will start earlier and end later.

Full information, including a link to the temporary timetable, is on the Whippet website.

Busway reopens 30 March - but with temporary timetables

At last! The "temporary" diversion, avoiding the Busway A14 overbridge, is finally going to be lifted, and services will revert to their original routes on Monday 30 March. This will be particularly important for Orchard Park passengers, who have been using the "wrong" stops for 9 months.

However, as previously mentioned, the introduction of Stagecoach's improved Busway timetables has been postponed for a second time. Instead - and for reasons that don't need spelling out here - a reduced service will be introduced on that date. What Stagecoach term an "enhanced Sunday service" will operate Monday-Saturday. It's not quite as bad as that makes it sound - there are certainly additional peak-hour services, and the evening journeys have been retained as well. Service R will be suspended. Sunday services continue unchanged.

Full details, including links to the temporary timetables, are available on the Stagecoach website.

New bus timetables

The timetable changes planned for March 29 will now happen on an as yet unspecified date (although the timetables themselves are currently available for viewing on Traveline). See the revised announcement from Stagecoach:

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/east/busway-service-changes-spring-2020-facts-and-questions

There’s going to be a huge shake up of Stagecoach’s busway services starting from 29th March. Full details at

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/media-library/files/east/busway_-_we_re_adjusting_our_timetables_-_leaflet_website.pdf?la=en

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.

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.

More details on busway timetable changes from 29 July 2018

The new timetable can be viewed on http://thebusway.info/pdfs/tt/ABNR.pdf

The new timetable is still not on the Stagecoach website, as at 29 July.

And a warning to passengers joining the busway at Drummer Street Bay 12, that the timetable poster displayed there is very out of date.

Once a day the service B operates via Houghton (18.55 Hinchingbrooke Hospital to St Ives).
In the other direction the 06.26 and 06.56 service A from St Ives to Hinchingbrooke call at Houghton.

Cambridge North continues to be served Mon-Sat by the hourly service N. Stagecoach seem to be missing an opportunity to provide a frequent direct service between St Ives and Cambridge North.

The Royston extensions of service A seems likely to introduce even more possibilities for late running on the core A route between Trumpington and St Ives.

Timetable changes from 29 July

As mentioned in an earlier post, there are to be significant changes to Busway timetables coming up at the end of July. It's now clear that these will affect most Stagecoach services.

They stem, in one way or another, from the need to accommodate the addition of journeys to and from Royston on Busway A (as perviously reported). But that has a knock-on effect on Route B times.

In addition, Route A buses that currently terminate at RAF Wyton will now terminate at Hill Rise during the day. RAF Wyton will be served by Route B on Peterborough and Huntingdon rail station journeys. Some peak time A buses will continue to serve RAF Wyton.

There are too many changes to be able to provide meaningful detail here. Fortunately, the new times are available on Traveline (but not - at time of writing - on the Stagecoach website).

Route A additional services from 28 July

Although these proposals haven't yet been submitted to the Traffic Commissioners, there are changes afoot at the southern end of Route A.

From 28 July there will be new Busway A services to and from Trumpington Park and Ride

Two new services will run from the Park and Ride at 06:02 and 06:17, and there will also be a new bus route to and through the biomedical campus from Royston, also stopping at Melbourn, Shepreth, Foxton and Harston (separate to the existing 26 bus service which currently routes to the City). This new bus route will initially run hourly and will be an extension to the Busway A to/from Trumpington Park and Ride.

The new 08:03 Busway A service from Longstanton will now be a single-deck bus, which means it can travel all the way to the biomedical campus as opposed to terminating at Cambridge rail station. 

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, 7 January (or 8 January, to be more precise)

Stagecoach are introducing a few timetable changes to Busway services with effect from 7 January (although none of the changes actually seem to apply until Monday 8 January). Here are the details:

A new journey has been added at 0823 from Longstanton Park & Ride to Cambridge Rail Station. The 0702 journey from Hill Rise will start at 0625 at Somersham, and will serve Colne, Earith, Bluntisham and Needingworth.
Also, the 0745 Route N from Cambridge will now terminate at Longstanton Park & Ride (M-F).

And here's a link to the revised timetable.

Timetable changes today (or tomorrow, in fact)

Stagecoach are making more changes to their Busway "B" service. In theory these impact only on the "regular road" section between Huntingdon and Peterborough, but it's possible there might be consequences for the Busway proper.

The B is to be rerouted via Stilton. To accommodate this, Peterborough services will leave Huntingdon 3 minutes earlier. And southbound services will generally leave Peterborough 5 minutes earlier. If this latter isn't sufficient to fit in the extra route mileage, then arrival at Huntingdon could be late, with consequences on the Huntingdon to Cambridge stretch. Only time will tell!

A revised timetable for the Huntingdon to Peterborough stretch is available for download here. The new times are also available from Traveline. The dedicated Busway pages on the County Council website seem unaware of either the route change or the amended timetable.

It's not 100% clear from either Stagecoach or Traveline if the Huntingdon/Peterborough service is continuing as a through service to/from Cambridge (there are a few runs that never have, of course). It seems unlikely that any change is planned in this regard, but until we have a new complete timetable for the whole Busway, it's impossible to be certain.

According to Stagecoach the changes come into effect today (29 October) - but there isn't a Sunday service on this stretch, so in practice they apply from 30 October.

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