Stagecoach timetable changes - Feb 2018

[Spoddendale]

Notices and Proceedings number 2305 dated 10 January 2018 lists the following under
Section 3.3 – Applications to Vary Existing Services

PF0000459/168 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Peterborough and Hampton given service number 606 / 6 effective from 18 February 2018. To amend Timetable.

PF0000459/29 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Fison Road and Fulbourn given service number 3 / 3 effective from 18 February 2018. To amend Timetable.

PF0000459/28 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Waterbeach and Addenbrooke's given service number 2 / 2 effective from 18 February 2018. To amend Timetable.

PF0000459/49 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Cambridge and Bury St Edmunds given service number 11 / 11 effective from 18 February 2018. To amend Timetable.

PF0000459/27 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Arbury and Fulbourn given service number 1 / 1 effective from 18 February 2018. To amend Timetable.

David

[Tony]

I was told the other day and i'm not sure how true it is that the Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds buses will only run between Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds

[TCD813]

I was told the other day and i'm not sure how true it is that the Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds buses will only run between Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds

It may be a split registration.

[barryb]

It may be a split registration.

Just been trying to work out what's happening with March x5 timetable.   I'm certain Traveline uses split registrations to inflict unnecessary levels of pain :-(

[TCD813]

Just been trying to work out what's happening with March x5 timetable.   I'm certain Traveline uses split registrations to inflict unnecessary levels of pain :-(

March? X5?

Ah. Did you mean the month, rather than the place?

[HughT]

Returning to the Stagecoach 11 (Cambridge-Bury). Yes, it's true. At least for off-peak services. Running just from Newmarket to BSE (and return, obviously). Now, the new timetable appears to suggest that the 11 will connect with the 12 at Newmarket, in both directions. But if it's anything like the "connections" at RAF Wyton between the A and 30/35, then I won't be holding my breath!

The new timetables are on the Suffolk County Council website (why doesn't Cambridgeshire CC offer this advance information, I wonder...):
https://www.suffolkonboard.com/buses/bus-timetable-updates/february-2018/

[TCD813]

Returning to the Stagecoach 11 (Cambridge-Bury). Yes, it's true. At least for off-peak services. Running just from Newmarket to BSE (and return, obviously). Now, the new timetable appears to suggest that the 11 will connect with the 12 at Newmarket, in both directions. But if it's anything like the "connections" at RAF Wyton between the A and 30/35, then I won't be holding my breath!

The new timetables are on the Suffolk County Council website (why doesn't Cambridgeshire CC offer this advance information, I wonder...):
https://www.suffolkonboard.com/buses/bus-timetable-updates/february-2018/

My first thought was this seems a rather odd reorganisation.

However I then thought to myself, what are the loadings on the off-peak services? And, in particular, how many passengers are ENTC holders?

Is this, I ask myself, a way for Stagecoach East to game the system?

Under the split service, an off-peak pass-holder’s journey between Cambridge and Bury will be compensated not by one payment from Cambridgeshire county council in one direction and one payment from Suffolk in the other, but by one from Cambridgeshire and three from Suffolk.

[barryb]

We'll find out if Stagecoach are gaming the system when they publish their own timetables (ie if the other half of the journeys turns up in a different service and they say that connections are guaranteed), but other than that it looks a lot like they've decided through demand from B St E to Cambridge isn't worth it and that Newmarket to Cambridge doesn't need so many buses.

This is awful sad - the fact that they haven't even maintained the peak journey back from Cambridge (the one least likely to meet a connection) shows just what a dire state bus services in this area are in :-(  It's not like they face stiff competition from rail; the train service is hideously expensive, just as infrequent with no prospect of improvement, unreliable, goes to the wrong part of Cambridge unless you happen to want to be at the station, in the case of Newmarket is statistically less likely to leave from the part of town you want to leave from, and has an overall journey time to central Cambridge of probably actually about the same.

There is of course a shining beacon of exception to this rule; the miracles that continue to happen on the Guided Busway.  It is so so sad that one of the (or perhaps just the) UK's most shining examples of success in *operating* buses (now to 35 services arriving in Cambridge from the north before 9am, following the latest batch of adding duplicates) has been utterly overshadowed by the fiasco that was building it :-(  Dare I suggest that what we need is a guided busway to Newmarket along the course of the old railway line?  I love proper railways, but we're not good at doing them, and the Mid Anglia line will always be restricted by the amount of freight it carries east of Newmarket.

Of course I am part of the problem, and beautifully reflect the decline that's been happening.  13 years ago I first arrived in the area and commuted daily from Huntingdon to Cambridge, while also using Stagecoach services from Cambridge for leisure trips on days off and at the weekend (including sometimes to Newmarket and B St E).  As the commute was hellish (in those days) I quickly moved into Cambridge, where I commuted with Citi services for a few years and still made leisure trips.  I got fed up with Citi services and started cycling within the city when I realised this was quicker, and then I started cycling to the first ring of villages around Cambridge when I realised that this was also the quickest way of getting to places like Sawston / Barton.  Nowadays life has got worse and my job is now in Ipswich / London, so I now have a car and either drive or take the train to work.  Once someone has a car they are of course almost lost to public transport, so weekend trips are now by car as well.

@TCD813 - yes I mean the X5 timetable that starts in March the month.

[centralsimon]

The new timetables are on the Suffolk County Council website (why doesn't Cambridgeshire CC offer this advance information, I wonder...):
https://www.suffolkonboard.com/buses/bus-timetable-updates/february-2018/

At least Cambridgeshire update their information. Have a look at Peterborough’s Travelchoice portal. Adverts from Summer 2017 with timetables for services no longer running.

I wouldn’t trust their disruption page ..... although it’s a 404 error.

Does Peterborough employ anybody for public transport I wonder?

[Spoddendale]

Notices and Proceedings 2307 dated 24 January 2018 contains the following Cambus applications. The following relate to services in both the Bedford and Cambridge areas:

Section 3.3 – Applications to Vary Existing Services

PF0000459/142 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Cambridge and St Neots given service number X5A / X5 effective from 11 March 2018. To amend Timetable.

PF0000459/197 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Buckingham and Oxford given service number X5D / X5 effective from 11 March 2018. To amend Timetable.

PF0000459/196 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Milton Keynes and Buckingham given service number X5C / X5 effective from 11 March 2018. To amend Timetable.

PF0000459/195 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between St Neots and Milton Keynes given service number X5B / X5 effective from 11 March 2018. To amend Timetable.

PF0000459/160 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Bedford and Biggleswade given service number 776 / 73 effective from 11 March 2018. To amend Timetable.


Section 3.4 – Applications to Vary Existing Services Granted Under Short Notice

PF0000459/48 CAMBUS LIMITED, 100 COWLEY ROAD, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 0DN Operating between Cambridge and Ely given service number 12 / 12 effective from 18 February 2018. To amend Timetable.

David

[barryb]

Covered in the Cambridge Evening News (in a way that makes it clear Stagecoach can never win) and the February changes are on Traveline (but not the March ones)

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/were-being-cut-off-buses-14200970

In addition to what it reported it looks like Waterbeach is going to lose some of the additional morning / evening services on the 2. 

It's a little bit tragic to think that not so long ago really 10m frequencies reached to the edge of Cambridge and beyond. :-(  The service Fulbourn will now have is only of practice use if it is reliable, which we all know it is unlikely to be.

[centralsimon]

The Peterborough 6 change is an extra early journey. Journeys now start 20 mins earlier than currently.

Would mean the bus arrives at Peterborough station for 0616. First Virgin Eastcoast departs at 0610 and won't connect with the 0615 GN semi fast.

You do question if anybody at Stagecoach has a clue?

[TCD813]

The Peterborough 6 change is an extra early journey. Journeys now start 20 mins earlier than currently.

Would mean the bus arrives at Peterborough station for 0616. First Virgin Eastcoast departs at 0610 and won't connect with the 0615 GN semi fast.

You do question if anybody at Stagecoach has a clue?

Time for Combined Authority Mayor, James Palmer, to invoke his powers of bus franchising.

[barryb]

The power we really need invoked is that to modify the road network so that busses can be reliable; a franchised unreliable service would be little help.

But it's not going to happen; we've seen the fuss the very suggestion caused in Cambridge :-(  We're fated to get drawn into the same paralysis is Heathrow Airport is caught in :-( 

[skyLink]

Taken from the Stagecoach website.
Service Changes February 2018
From 18th February 2018, there will be changes to the following services:
Cambridge - Citi 1, Citi 2, Citi 3, Service 11 & Service 12
Peterborough - Citi 6

From 4th March 2018, there will be changes to the following services:
Cambridge - Citi 3 & Service 17


The following changes will apply from 18th February 2018:

 

Cambridge

Citi 1 / Citi 3


Citi 1/3 will see a change to the frequency at Fulbourn during the day time (Monday to Saturday) with buses operating every 30 minutes. Evening and Sunday buses will not change. Citi 3 buses on a Saturday morning will follow the evening/Sunday route between Fison Road, Whitehill Estate and Newmarket Road before 0900.


Citi 2


Citi 2 will continue to operate every 10 minutes Monday to Saturday daytime's between Cambridge North Rail Station and Mill Road. Buses will then continue every 20 minutes to Addenbrooke’s, and every 20 minutes to Coldham’s Lane Sainsbury’s providing a new link to the store. There will also be changes to Saturday morning frequencies on Citi 1, 2 & 3 with buses running up to every 20 minutes before 0900.


Service 11 / Service 12


Buses on Service 11 will only operate between Bury St Edmund’s and Newmarket off peak. There will be a minor alteration to the Service 12 timetable which will enable customers to change buses at Newmarket Bus Station for onward travel to Cambridge/Ely.

 


Peterborough

Citi 6


A new journey has been added to the timetable. There is now a 0545 Monday to Friday departure from Hampton Vale - with a return journey back from Queensgate departing at 0625.

 

The following Changes will apply from 4th March 2018:
Citi 3 & Service 17
Service 17 will no longer operate. Journeys on Citi 3 will be extended from the Fulbourn Superstore to replace journeys on route 17 between Cherry Hinton and Stetchworth.

 

These changes are being made due to declining passenger numbers and the ever increasing congestion within Cambridge, which hampers the progress of the buses.

New timetables are available to view by clicking the links above, with printed versions becoming available shortly. Customers can also download the free Stagecoach app – available in the App and Play stores – or use the website journey planner to plan their journeys.

New timetable information will be available via the app or journey planner from week commencing 29th January 2018.

[Julia_Hayward]

There is of course a shining beacon of exception to this rule; the miracles that continue to happen on the Guided Busway.  It is so so sad that one of the (or perhaps just the) UK's most shining examples of success in *operating* buses (now to 35 services arriving in Cambridge from the north before 9am, following the latest batch of adding duplicates) has been utterly overshadowed by the fiasco that was building it :-(  Dare I suggest that what we need is a guided busway to Newmarket along the course of the old railway line? 

I use the busway daily in the peaks and reliability is pretty appalling - the only reasons it gets the custom it does are that driving the A14 is worse, and that the County Council concentrate their efforts on it rather than other services. Exactly as predicted, you get a reasonable journey to/from the top of Milton Road, and then sit in queues when you rejoin the road network. Worst time is about 8.30am when town - Science Park takes about 30-40 minutes against a timetabled 11. You need a segregated route *where the congestion is*, not in the middle of the countryside.

Or better still, start taking action to keep single-occupant car traffic outside the city and delivery vans away from the peaks, but that's not going to happen in my lifetime.

[barryb]

The frequency of the services also means that the reliability is less important; in most places on the core route you at least won't be left standing in the cold for ages (except in Orchard Park).

But yes.  The City Deal proposal for Milton Rd was so sorely needed.  The interests of the rest of Cambridgeshire needed to be given greater weighting than the interests of a small number of residents of that one road :-(