Tackling Deficiencies

This weekend, both Stagecoach and Whippet increase their Sunday bus services on the Cambridgeshire guided busway. This sees one of the busway’s most serious deficiencies tackled. Indeed, Stagecoach goes from one to three an hour. Whippet increases from every two hours to Stagecoach’s current hourly. It would’ve been nice to see a co-ordinated quarter-hourly service that approaches the frequency where passengers need no timetable but such is deregulated life. At least the traffic commissioner has granted short notice.

In Cambridge bus station are two of the Stagecoach busway-liveried vehicles plus, on the left, a further biofuelled bus in a livery that can be used on other services. We asked whether readers had any photos they wished to share and today’s are some of them, with thanks
As for weekday services, there’s a divergence of opinion. Stagecoach is already contemplating buying more vehicles and operating additional services. This might include buses starting from Longstanton park & ride, to cure problems of full upstream buses from St Ives. This follows a busy week two, during which you’d’ve expected the novelty to have worn off. It hasn’t, yet. And, who knows what will happen next week, when the world returns to normal travel patterns. Stagecoach is expecting good things. Let’s hope its optimism is justified.

Whippet, on the other hand, is being far more circumspect. It wishes to see whether the current numbers are stable. Will patronage settle?

Why the difference in approach? Whippet cannot afford to do anything precipitous. It’s a small business without the deep pockets of its near neighbour.

Even were Whippet to increase its hourly weekday service, it cannot easily compete against giant Stagecoach. Stagecoach bought Whippet’s site ahead of the original busway opening to garage its fleet of busway vehicles, with a handful of other biofuelled guidewheel buses in reserve.

Whippet therefore hasn’t the resources to flood the busway with vehicles. It has three only and to ratchet things up from its hourly service to anything approaching Stagecoach’s level would result in expenditure that would not be diligent.

Instead, Whippet is calling for joint ticketing. This would address a second major deficiency in busway operation. But any revenue sharing via the busway ‘station’ ticket machines would also benefit Whippet more than Stagecoach. Whippet knows it’s on the back foot as regards frequency. As things currently stand, if apportioned by mileage, Whippet would presumably gain 1/7th of all revenue on tickets sales that would be priced at the Stagecoach rate of eight per cent higher than Whippet’s own. Presumably, Whippet passengers with busway tickets would then have access to both Whippet and Stagecoach services at either end of their journeys. Add in the busway livery used by both and we have a Quality Contract in the making.

Meanwhile, in spite of Stagecoach’s confidence and Whippet’s cautious Sunday optimism, the naysayers still abound. There’s conspiracy talk in Cambridgeshire of operators deliberately keeping frequencies lower to ensure full buses. Poppycock. Or that commuters will only use the busway because they have no car. Or that the busway will go the way of the strange 1973 100 mph Erith hover train experiment. Or that operators will be pulling services owing to financial difficulties (Stagecoach is committed to five years at the current frequency).

For me, I’d actually rather await the autumn when work, university, college & school resumes full time. A picture will then emerge. But I’m still optimistic.