Stagecoach reiterates complaint that roadworks are causing disruption to bus services in Cambridge

Stagecoach has reiterated its complaint that the “unprecedented” level of roadworks in Cambridge is forcing it to cancel buses.

A representative of the company told Cambridge City Council that this was making some bus services “extremely late” and forcing the cancellation of others.

David Boden, business development director at Stagecoach, called on utility companies to do “above the bare minimum” to minimise disruption to bus services, arguing there was currently no “cohesive planning”.

He told councillors at a north area committee this week (November 13) that Stagecoach was providing 98 to 99 per cent of the planned services.

But, as the Cambridge Independent has reported, the bus company is unhappy about the lack of communication around roadworks.

Mr Boden said: “What is currently cancelling services in our city is because we have faced an unprecedented amount of utilities and roadworks that appear on our routes sometimes with little or no notice.

“To give you a very good example it was decided to be a wonderful idea to grant permits to allow UK Power Networks to dig up Hills Road at Homerton College, put the junction on four-way lights, that caused two weeks of disruption for the A service, despite that fact that the following week there was a planned disruption there.

“What these are doing is cumulatively making the buses extremely late in the city, so we are having to make cancellations sometimes because it is the only way to regulate the service and try and keep some services running to a semblance of time.

“We are truly sorry when we have to cancel them but sometimes it is circumstances outside of our control, such as these, such is the lack of cohesive planning in terms of the consideration of the impact that these types of things are having on the bus network.”

Mr Boden said congestion and roadworks had also “forced” the company to cut the frequency of the Citi 1 service, which he said was the busiest bus route in Cambridge, with around 150,000 people travelling on it per month.

He said it was a “bad state of affairs” when a bus service had to be cut “purely because of roadworks”.