"Unprecedented" roadworks leading to bus cancellations in Cambridge
They called for utility companies to do “above the bare minimum” to minimise disruption
Stagecoach has said the “unprecedented” amount of roadworks in Cambridge is forcing it to cancel buses.
A representative of the company told Cambridge City Council that the level of roadworks in the city was making bus services “extremely late” causing some to be cancelled.
They called for utility companies to do “above the bare minimum” to minimise disruption to bus services, arguing there was currently no “cohesive planning”.
David Boden, business development director at Stagecoach, told councillors at a north area committee this week (11/13) that they were providing 98 to 99 per cent of the planned services.
However, he said many cancellations of services at the moment were outside of Stagecoach’s control.
He 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”.
‘Histon Road bus stops need to be reinstated’
Stagecoach was also challenged at the meeting on its decision to no longer stop A-bus services at most stops along Histon Road.
Lilian Rundblad, member of Histon Road Area Residents’ Association, said the community had received a “very unreliable service” since the buses began only stopping at Akeman Street.
She said the buses were often either cancelled, or full of passengers by the time they reached Histon Road and could not stop to pick up more people.
Ms Rundbald said people living along the road wanted to see the Brownlow Road and the Carisbrooke Road bus stops reinstated “immediately”.
One parent also asked for more services to be put on during peak hours, saying their son, who is a student at Long Road College, was refused boarding for three buses one morning on Histon Road due to them all being full.
Mr Boden said the decision to remove the bus stops had not been taken lightly, and said he was “truly sorry” for the impact it was having on people.
He explained there had been a problem of no A buses stopping along Histon Road due to them being full after leaving Orchard Park.
Mr Boden said that since the introduction of the 8A service meant Histon Road had “effectively” a 15-minute service into the city, the focus had been to try and provide access for people to Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
He said: “People say ‘it only takes you a second to stop at a bus stop’ and that is true, but every additional minute you put into a service costs extra buses, extra buses that at the moment are simply completely and utterly unaffordable, whichever mechanism you use to run the buses.
“By stopping at every bus stop on Histon Road and boarding people who just want to go into the city, what you do is potentially undermine the service as a whole.
“Whereas if you are offering a 15-minute service into the city and you restrict boarding on Histon Road to Akeman Street, you then give a chance of whatever potential seats are coming off Orchard Park being available to people who are travelling to Addenbrooke’s rather than the city.”
Mr Boden also said the frequency of services could not be increased until the closed southern section of the Busway – between Cambridge Station and Addenbrooke’s Hospital – was reopened.
He said that since the section closed nearly two years ago, additional buses had needed to be used due to buses having to use Hills Road instead and hitting traffic.
Mr Boden said the closure was having a “profound and fundamental impact on the viability of the Busway” and said that until it reopened they could not increase the frequency of buses.