Anger at Stagecoach bus timetable and route changes (South East Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats)

South East Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats <info@secambslibdems.org.uk>

Anger at Stagecoach bus timetable and route changes

October 21, 2009 7:12 PM

Local bus travellers and Parish, District and County Councillors have expressed anger about the recently revised timetable for the Citi 7 bus route, which runs from Cottenham to the City and onwards to Sawston and which is due to go into operation 30th November 2009.

The new timetable reduces the current 6 times an hour service to 4 times an hour with no extra buses in the rush hour. A change to the route, which is not apparent from the timetable, also means that the Citi 7 will no longer serve Cambridge Road in Impington.

This move appears to be related to the coincident start-up of guided bus services although this has been denied by Stagecoach.

County Councillor Sue Gymer said: '"This is bad news for local people who use the bus to travel to work and for the wider community accessing doctors, dentists, chemist, church groups and the companies on Vision Park. This service is already over-crowded in the rush hour. Now it will be worse and people in Histon and on Histon Road in Cambridge may not be able to board, as it is likely to be full. It will simply discourage travellers from using public transport and many people will want to use their cars."

Fellow councillor David Jenkins added: 'The net result of this change is to disenfranchise large parts of Histon and Impington as far as buses are concerned. It is generally accepted that 400m is a fair walking distance to a bus stop and now nearly 500 homes and businesses will be further than this from their nearest bus stops.'

'It's good that the guided bus will finally start operations but it shouldn't lead to a reduction of local service. The Citi 7 will no longer follow its established route and many travellers will find this extremely off putting. The elderly will be particularly hit by this cut."

Histon & Impington District Councillor, Jonathan Chatfield adds, "The service starts later in the morning now, making it impossible to catch the busy commuter train at 07:15 into London - you miss it by 5 minutes. Also, in the evening, if you catch the 17:45 back from London you would have 1 hour 10 minutes to wait for a bus, as there is an extended gap at this time between the 15 minute daytime service and the hourly evening service."