Additional guided busway services are being introduced to cope with the ­growing demand from commuters heading to Cambridge from Huntingdonshire.

From February 23, Stagecoach will increase the frequency of departures between St Ives and Cambridge to every five minutes at peak times.

The service, which currently runs every seven to eight minutes, will ­operate on outward journeys to Cambridge on weekdays from 7am until 9am and from the city to St Ives between 4pm and 6pm.

The changes will include more double-deckers running on the St Ives to Cambridge route at peak times.

Andy Campbell, managing director for Stagecoach East, said: “We have put in additional resources to cope with peak-time demands on the busway, and just as we have experimented ­previously with extending journeys to Ramsey and Chatteris, we are going to try new links from Brampton and Godmanchester to see if that proves popular with commuters.”

Stagecoach’s new Brampton and Godmanchester service will cover mornings and evening peaks before joining the busway at St Ives.

The timetable shows stops in Brampton at Horseshoes Way at 6.49am and Miller Way at 6.54am.

The bus will stop at Meadow Way, Godmanchester, at 7.27am.

In the evenings, the bus will reach Miller Way at 6.17pm and Horseshoes Way at 6.19pm.

It will stop at Meadow Way, Godmanchester, at 6.44pm.

There will also be extra direct ­journeys from Huntingdon to the start of the busway at St Ives, excluding the route around the Oxmoor.

However, the increase in services has caused concern in St Ives, where the Town Team has been working to solve traffic congestion on Harrison Way and North Road.

The congestion is exacerbated by traffic lights on Harrison Way triggered every time a bus wants to access or leave the guideway, as well as with pedestrians and cyclists heading to and from the town centre.

Councillor Nick Dibben, St Ives mayor and chairman of the transport group of St Ives Town Team, said: “It’s good that the new services will enable more people to use the bus, but it might give us problems elsewhere, depending on what time the buses are and whether there are pedestrians and cyclists crossing Harrison Way.”

He said the Town Team will formulate a clearer plan once they receive the results of Cambridgeshire County Council traffic model for the area.