City congestion must be sorted out before villages can get better transport'

105-minute bus route to school for Cottenham college students

A mum in Cottenham has told how her daughter is having to spend an hour and 45 minutes each way on public transport to reach school in Cambridge.

Alison Kitching said her daughter Adele, 16, who has just started Long Road Sixth Form College, has been travelling by bus to Histon to pick up the guided busway, along with other students.

But at peak hours she is finding the guided buses are so full they sometimes drive straight past the stop.

Now some parents are choosing to drive their children to Histon to shorten the commuting time.

And one mother is driving her child to Waterbeach railway station rather than relying on the bus service to get her

child into the city centre to attend college.

Alison said: “There’s just too much traffic going into the city centre. Until Cambridge sorts itself out, the villages can’t do anything.”

Alison added that students are paying £270 for a bus pass each term.

The guided busway could benefit from City Deal’s plans to better manage traffic on Milton Road, along with other congestion calming measures such as a second busway to Cambourne.

The public are being urged to have their say in a consultation that ends on Monday, October 10.