THE world’s longest busway – a total of 25km between St Ives and Trumpington – has now carried more than four million passengers since it opened in August 2011, and traveller numbers are expected to grow by half a million this year.

Cambridgeshire County Council said yesterday (Tuesday) that the latest figures confirmed a year-on-year increase in passenger journeys, and in 2013 the route was expected to provide three million passenger trips – up half a million on 2012.

Since it opened more than two years late, the popularity of journeys between Huntingdonshire and Cambridge has continued to exceed all but the most optimistic assumptions. In January this year, 253,355 people used the busway, nearing the more than 280,000 passengers who climbed aboard last October.

The county council’s cabinet member for growth and planning, Councillor Ian Bates, said: “Despite its detractors, the busway has proved to be a great success since the day it opened, and I am delighted that passenger numbers continue to grow.

“Four million passengers since it opened are proof that people, including myself, are choosing the busway over other methods of travel, and clearly the good news is spreading as more and more people turn to this clean, convenient and comfortable way to get to and from Cambridge and the surrounding areas of Cambridgeshire.

“The passenger figures speak for themselves, and who can argue that the busway is not a success when the number of journeys will grow by more than half a million this year alone?”