Bus changes will add more cars to busy Cambs roads

Stagecoach appears to have changed from a bus company focused on carrying passengers to a company dedicated to getting its buses from Cambridge to Huntingdon in the fastest possible time, with or without passengers. No wonder Stagecoach wants buses to travel through our town centre, which it obviously sees as no more than an extension of the guided busway.

Is this move a punishment for the town council’s decision not to allow buses through the town or is it a bargaining tool to achieve this?

With the exception of passengers boarding the bus in St Ives bus station, the majority of passengers going to Huntingdon use the bus stops on Ramsey Road [north of Houghton Road] and Hill Rise.

The B service serves Hartford, the Oxmoor, Huntingdonshire Regional College (HRC) and Huntingdon railway station. These places are served only by the B service. Effectively HRC will suffer as Cambridge Regional College will be much more accessible by a frequent bus service than HRC and more people will travel by car to the railway station. This will affect Huntingdon, as well as St Ives residents, as fewer people will be able to travel there conveniently, as at present.

When additional buses are added to this route, as promised, there will be more buses carrying fewer and fewer passengers to and from Huntingdon.

No, Mr Campbell [Stagecoach’s managing director], I will not walk to town or catch a bus to St Ives and out again when travelling to Huntingdon railway station. I, and many others, will go back to using the car again, adding a further vehicle[s] to the busy A1123 and no doubt creating more delays for the Stagecoach buses.

Mr Campbell is treating the town and people of St Ives with disdain. Let us hope that the town, district and county councils will work together to fight this change.

ANTHONY D BARRACLOUGH

Burleigh Road

St Ives