Cambridgeshire Guided Busway - Services

Services

Two operators, Stagecoach and Whippet Coaches, committed to buying new buses and running commercial services on the scheme. The council had previously held talks with Cavalier (Huntingdon and District) and another operator. As with all other UK busway schemes in the privatised bus industry, Cambridgeshire County Council owns the infrastructure, and will allow private bus operators to use it on their registered services, subject to quality contracts specifying vehicle and service standards (Euro IV and low-floor buses). During peak hours of 07:00–19:00 Monday–Saturday operators are charged for using the busway.

Originally seven buses per hour ran on the core northern section between St Ives and Cambridge Science Park during the day, reducing to hourly services in the evenings and on Sundays. Figures originally published during 2004 by Cambridgeshire County Council proposed that it would begin operation with six services per hour and work up to twenty services per hour into Cambridge during peak periods by 2016.

In January 2012, a report made to the cabinet of Cambridgeshire County Council suggested opening up the operation of the five Park & Ride sites to companies in addition to just Stagecoach Cambridgeshire in a bid to recover some of the £617,000 annual cost.

Routes A and B

Stagecoach control 86% of Cambridgeshire's bus services and run services on Routes A and B between St Ives and Cambridge along the busway, with extensions to Huntingdon railway station. The journey time for Routes A and B from St Ives bus station to the Cambridge Science Park are 23 minutes plus an additional 15 minutes into Cambridge city centre, meaning journey times of roughtly 38 minutes in total. Stagecoach's previous three-times per hour Service 55 between Cambridge and St Ives had been timetabled as taking 30–37 minutes. The promoters of the scheme predicted that journey times via the busway route might be more consistent and reliable, due to buses avoiding the busy A14 road.

To operate their services, Stagecoach ordered ten Eclipse/B7RLE single decker buses, to be manufactured by Wrightbus and Volvo, and ten Alexander Dennis Enviro400/Scania N230UD double deckers for the guided busway network. All of the new specially-branded vehicles are equipped with leather seats, air chill or air conditioning, real time information, and free Wi-Fi. The new fleet of buses were deployed on Stagecoach's other services prior to the opening of guided sections of the busway, having cost the operator a total of £3 million plus £1 million in staffing and training costs.

Less than a month after opening, Stagecoach announced that the Sunday service would be increased to three buses per hour to St. Ives, up from the original one per hour. One Sunday service per hour would also continue to Huntingdon. From the summer of 2012 both Route A and B will increase to operate every 15mins, with all buses beening extended to operate into St Ives town centre. Andy Campbell, Stagecoach Cambridgeshire’s managing director, said: "I think 1 million customers in four-and-a-half months showed there was a desire to use the busway. This is a positive step which will hopefully increase patronage even further."

Route C

Whippet Coaches operate Route C from Somersham to Cambridge centre using a mixture of rural roads, Cambridge city centre roads and the northern busway between the St Ives park and ride site and the outskirts of Cambridge. Journey time from Somersham to Cambridge city centre is scheduled to take 57 minutes, with no Sunday service. Whippet spent a total of £420,000 on three buses (£140,000 each). Less than a month after opening Whippet announced that they would adjust their sporadic Sunday service between Cambridge and Somersham, increasing it up to one service per hour.