Cambridgeshire headteachers and commuters hit out at ‘devastating’ Stagecoach bus cuts
Headteachers and college principals around Cambridge have called bus cuts planned for the end of October “devastating” and are assessing how many students will have “no viable route” to school.
With 18 services cancelled by bus operator Stagecoach and many others no longer stopping in villages on their routes, some students will simply be unable to get to school in a few weeks' time. And many bus users will be cut off from their job, shops and medical appointments.
More than 16,000 people have signed petitions to save vital bus services linking their villages to Cambridge after Stagecoach East announced last week that the routes would be cancelled. The bus operator claims the cancelled routes are no longer commercially viable.
Stephen Munday, CEO of the Cam Academy Trust, which includes Comberton Village College and Comberton Sixth Form College, has written to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor, Dr Nik Johnson, and Stagecoach demanding answers.
He said: “I wanted to voice my anger and disappointment at the decision to include the 18 service from Cambridge to Cambourne in this cull. This is an indispensable route which serves Comberton Village College and Comberton Sixth Form, both part of The Cam Academy Trust. Staff and students regularly use this service both from Cambridge and Newnham at one end of the route and from Cambourne at the other.
“The loss of this route will have a disastrous impact on not only those who need it to reach their place or work or education but on the communities we serve in Comberton, Cambourne and the surrounding villages.
“Not only will these villages lose their link to each other and the bigger settlements, but will also suffer the environmental impact of additional vehicles visiting our site at key times of day, increasing congestion and pollution, as well as major cost and inconvenience for parents having to transport their children (where this is an option).
“The loss of this service will also have a serious impact on young people’s post-16 choices. Those from another trust school, Cambourne Village College, may be unable to access Comberton Sixth Form while those wanting to attend city sixth forms from the villages of Bourn, Toft and Comberton may be precluded from doing so.”
He added: “Current estimates from regular users of the 18 service estimate that there are around 30 staff and students regularly travelling from Cambridge to Comberton on the service that arrives around 8.15am. And on Tuesday, the day of the closure announcement, there were 40 passengers from the college heading into Cambridge in the afternoon at 3.10pm. Fridays are even busier.
“Around 20 regularly travel from Comberton to Cambourne, but that number could have been much higher. Comberton Sixth Form reluctantly runs its own buses from Cambourne because, despite evidence of demand – the private services currently carry up to 99 passengers a day – Stagecoach opted not to run a service that arrives in Comberton around 8.15am, meaning users are dropped off either at 7.40 or after 9am, when lessons have already started. This was despite lengthy discussions during the past six months.”
Bottisham Village College principal Jenny Rankine said: “We currently have 15 out of catchment families who regularly use the public bus (No 11) and several of our staff. We of course would do anything we can to help these families and will be contacting them early next week when a plan is in place to help reassure them.
“We are concerned that out of catchment families won’t have the same choice of school for their children and this will be a difficult message to give parents at our open evening on October 6.”
Yolanda Botham, principal of Long Road Sixth Form College, expressed her worries about the loss of bus services.
She said: “We’re deeply concerned about the impact of these proposed withdrawal of services. We’re currently surveying all our students to be more precise about the numbers of students affected, and indeed to identify those students for whom the withdrawal of services will mean that they can’t actually come to college because they don’t have a viable route.
“We’re also sharing this information with all our local post-16 providers, including Hills Road and Cambridge Regional College because it’s going to impact all of us and it’s potentially quite devastating. I do understand that the mayor recognises all of this, and the Combined Authority is going through a procurement exercise to seek alternative services. That’s going to take something like three weeks.”
Student Bryer, 17, who lives in Swaffham Bulbeck and travels on the number 11 bus to Hills Road Sixth Form College, said: “Both my parents work in the NHS and so I can’t rely on them being able to drive me in. My nearest public transport would be Newmarket train station, which is over six miles away, or the Park & Ride on Newmarket Road - five miles.
“I’m sitting my A-levels next year so I really need to get to college. This bus is always really busy with people going to college and work and then we have to get off in the city centre and catch another bus to college or walk. I really hope something can be sorted out because there are no other other public transport options around here. Realistically, it’s too far to cycle, especially in the dark and the rain over winter.”
A petition by Noah Williams to save the number 18 bus route from Cambourne to Cambridge has attracted almost 4,500 signatures. Noah warned that many students will not be able to get to college after the end of October.
He said: “The 18 is an hourly bus that runs from Cambridge to Cambourne and also goes to Eltisley and Longstowe twice a day. It is heavily relied on by young and old people to get to and from work, college, shopping and everywhere else they need to be in town.
“Students of Long Road, Hills Road, Comberton Village College and Cambridge Regional College (plus others) rely on its school run. It only does this school run once a day and is heavily beneficial as it saves students a lot of time and money. We can’t all drive.
“Cancelling the 18 is going to leave all of us in Comberton, Barton, Toft and other rural areas with no way to get around.”
Meanwhile communities have been cut off from their only way to get to work. Arti Thorne, a University of Cambridge administrator who lives in Hardwick, relies on the Citi4 bus to get to her job and drop off her two children at school and nursery. She launched a petition to save the Citi4, which has attracted more than 2,000 signatures.
Arti, 37, said: “The Citi4 route is being changed to exclude Hardwick, Coton, all of Madingley Road as well, and Caldecote and so this means that I will no longer have any bus service at all. I don’t drive, which means that I use the bus for absolutely everything.
“I have two children, one in school, one in nursery and I use the bus to get them there every day. I go to work and medical appointments using the bus. There are many other people in my village in the same situation – and the number of signatures on the petition attest to that. We will all be affected really, really badly and I’m very worried.
“It is a nightmare. This has kept me up at night feeling worried and I have cried several times over the last couple of days. I’m lucky that my husband has a car and can drive so I’m not completely trapped but if this actually happens we will look into moving house.
“I’m a grown adult and I can’t be relying on my husband to give me lifts everywhere. I used to be proud that I travelled everywhere by bus - I see it as a way of looking after the environment.
“I must know at least 100 people from my village who completely rely on the bus. The Combined Authority has a duty to ensure villages have a functioning bus services. What are they doing about it?”
One Hardwick resident, who signed Arti’s petition, wrote: “The proposed changes will adversely affect a very large proportion of the local population. The service is heavily used, and local people can’t understand why Stagecoach have planned to leave residents high and dry like this.
“When central and local government want more of the population to use public transport, Stagecoach want to pull the rug from under us. Stagecoach have provided us with a much-reduced service over the last few months, citing driver sickness, holidays and, lately, shortage of drivers. We’ve routinely had single-deckers at rush hour when the number of passengers has required provision of double-decker buses, causing numerous buses to sail on past queues of waiting passengers.
“The service has not resumed (its) pre-Covid frequency of three buses per hour. With the recent reduced service, we have had only one bus an hour. Now they want to do away with our buses altogether. To make changes without public consultation is immoral… Bring back public ownership of Britain’s transport network!”
More than 8,500 people have signed a petition launched by Jemma Fortey to stop the cancellation of the number 11 service, which runs from Bury St Edmunds, through Newmarket, Burwell, the Swaffhams and Bottisham into Cambridge.
She says: “Not only will this have a huge impact on children and young adults attending Cambridge colleges and West Suffolk College, it shall also remove any public services from any villages between allowing us access to train services. This cannot be allowed to happen.
“People will become even more isolated, people will struggle to get to work, the elderly may lose their only form of transport to get from A-B. The government want us to use buses and reduce pollution and traffic in main cities and this will undoubtedly cause more cars to travel into Cambridge. Coincidentally they are considering a £5 levy for congestion.”
Another petition, from Hannah Edgeley, has gathered 1,170 signatures to save the number 39 service from March to Ely via Sutton.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Lib Dems have also launched a petition requesting that Stagecoach comes back to the table to negotiate with the Combined Authority to put in place a bus network that residents can rely on and reverses the proposed cuts to bus services.
Pippa Heylings, the party’s Parliamentary candidate in South Cambridgeshire, said: “The behaviour of Stagecoach is shocking. Just a few weeks ago, they accepted a government subsidy so that they could keep services running. And now they are cutting the very services that they were being paid for.
“Bus services in Cambridgeshire are such a shambles that it is no surprise that people are not willing to depend on them. People need reliable services. I am calling on Stagecoach to sit down with the Combined Authority and government to agree a long-term plan that includes bus franchising.
“This is ultimately a failure of the government to get a grip on the bus industry during the pandemic. Earlier this year, the long-awaited Boris Johnson bus manifesto promise was slashed from £3 billion to just £1.4 billion and none of those grants have been allocated to Cambridgeshire.”
Darren Roe, Stagecoach East managing director, is calling for a summit with the Combined Authority and passenger groups to discuss a way forward.
He says that with lower passenger numbers on buses following Covid and high fuel costs mean the 18 routes set to be cut are unaffordable.
The controversy comes with the Greater Cambridge Partnership executive board's decision on Wednesday to agree on launching a consultation on road-charging plans, which would impose a £5 fee on drivers using their cars in Cambridge to fund a radically improved bus network, with flat £1 and £2 fares. The network improvements, the GCP has promised, would come ahead of the introduction of road charging.
But this week, all that seemed rather remote to bus passengers worried about getting to school or work in a month’s time.
