Commuter concerns over Hunts bus connections

BUS operator Stagecoach has promised to re-think its new timetable from mid-February if fears over rail connections prove to be right. Campaigners Railfuture fear the new 45 service, which replaces some extended 65/66 St Neots-Huntingdon services that are

BUS operator Stagecoach has promised to re-think its new timetable from mid-February if fears over rail connections prove to be right.

Campaigners Railfuture fear the new 45 service, which replaces some extended 65/66 St Neots-Huntingdon services that are to be scrapped from February 14, will arrive at Huntingdon station too late for morning commuters from St Ives to catch trains and will leave too the station too soon for returning commuters to catch the buses.

The rail body's East Anglia secretary Nick Dibben said flexing the timetable by just five or 10 minutes at each end of the day would meet commuters' needs.

But Stagecoach commercial director Philip Norwell said the timetable had been drafted specifically around the needs of rail commuters, as required by Cambridgeshire County Council, which will subsidise the service.

But he promised to monitor how the service worked and change it if necessary. "I'm fairly certain we've got it about right," he told The Hunts Post.

Mr Dibben said the morning buses, if only slightly late, would not give passengers sufficient time to buy a ticket from the booking office before their chosen train left for London.

In the evening, the buses were timetabled to leave the station at much the same time as the trains from Kings Cross arrived, meaning some passengers risked being left behind by the buses.

But Mr Norwell added that the faster 55 service also called at the station, so St Ives passengers would not have to rely on the 45.