Passengers evacuate Whippet bus after it catches fire in Cambourne

Passengers were forced to evacuate a bus in Cambourne after it caught fire.

Fire crews from Cambourne and Cambridge were scrambled to Cambourne Road shortly before 6.30pm on Tuesday (September 26).

On arrival, they found the Whippet X3 bus had been evacuated. They used hose reels to put out the fire and returned to their stations by 7.45pm.

The cause of the fire was accidental, the fire service said.

The incident came amid a wave of cancelled services from Whippet, which has blamed “driver shortages” for the disruption.

Today alone (Wednesday), it cancelled:

- the No 18 at 6.04am from Cambourne to St Neots and 6.15am from Great Gransden to Cambridge
- the X3 9.49am Cambridge railway station to Huntingdon service
- the No 66 from Godmanchester to Hinchingbrooke at 11.12am, 11.32am and 12.12pm; and
- the X2 at 7.22am from Huntingdon to the railway station.

Commenting on Twitter, passengers told of the unreliability, lateness and breakdowns.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience caused,” said Whippet.