The Stagecoach changes to busway, Park & Ride and other services coming into effect this weekend
Sponsored feature | David Boden, business development director, Stagecoach East, discusses major upgrades taking effect on Sunday (1 September).
This is a hugely busy time at Stagecoach East as we make the final preparations to a major upgrade to local bus services which will come into effect on Sunday (1 September).
These changes will see a significantly increase capacity and also increase the frequency of services on the Busway to up to every 10 minutes on both sides of the track in peak times. This will come about by adding three extra buses onto those services, on top of those already operating.
Today, the Busway is an essential part of Cambridgeshire’s transport network, and it is on its way to becoming the ‘turn up and go’ service that we all want it to be. So there has never been a better time to get on board to get to work or to meet friends and family!
During morning and evening peaks, all Busway A and B services will now operate through to serve Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. This will introduce further capacity of 428 seats at peak times. This upgrade has been supported by funding from the Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), and discussions are under way with other key stakeholders to support the long-term sustainability of these improvements.
B services will continue to serve Long Road Sixth Form College at college times. More services to St Ives will be available from Addenbrooke’s bus station. The H and R services will be withdrawn and will be replaced by more A and B journeys.
Elsewhere, Madingley Park & Ride (PR1) will have an extra round-trip added at 0820hrs from Madingley in response to customer feedback.
Also, extra journeys have been added at Trumpington Park & Ride (PR3) to extend the 10-minute frequency back to Trumpington until 1855hrs. The service will then run every 20 minutes from 1910hrs.
On Monday to Friday from 1100hrs to 1500hrs, Trumpington Park & Ride will observe all stops.
Meanwhile, other changes to the local network include:
- Service X13: Thanks to funding from CPCA, there will be additional journeys between Linton and Addenbrooke’s to give a 15-minute service in the off-peak.
- Service 1: As a result of congestion challenges getting out of the city, this service will now do one loop around Fulbourn village. Buses coming from Cambridge will now change their destinations to say ‘Cambridge’ at the start of the village and customers will be able to travel through the end of the route.
- Service 4: On the Cambourne to Cambridge service, and following funding from the CPCA, Stagecoach East will enhance the frequency of this service, which will now operate every 20 minutes. Please check the timetable for specific journey times.
- Service 6: Due to severe ongoing and challenging traffic congestion in the city – especially record levels of roadworks by utilities companies – timetables will need to be changed to reflect the frequency customers are actually experiencing today. This means peak-hour journeys will now be every 40 minutes, rather than 30, and off-peak every 70 minutes rather than 60. This will be reviewed if traffic circumstances change.
- Service 7: Severe ongoing challenges with traffic congestion in the Hills Road area have forced further amendments to journey times. In response to customer feedback from Pampisford, the 1936hrs and 2036hrs departures from Addenbrooke’s will now serve Pampisford, thus ensuring those on a 0700-1900hrs shift at Addenbrooke’s will get a prompt journey home.
- Services 604 and 607: The route and timetable will be updated to better meet the needs of Impington Village College and Sawston Village College. These services are open to all customers, not just students. The changes will allow a better service not only for students but anyone who needs to go to the Science Park and Cambridge Regional College. The 604 service will now start at Milton College of West Anglia and pick up on the opposite side of the road through Milton.
