Anger over Cambridgeshire bus company axing 18 routes

Cambridgeshire's mayor has called a bus company's plans to axe 18 routes as "unacceptable".

According to data seen by the BBC, the routes, which are run by Stagecoach East, carried almost 90,000 passengers in June 2022, and lost £4.7m a year.

The Tory leader of East Cambs District Council, the county's Labour mayor and a MP said the routes should stay.

Stagecoach East said the services cut were only 6% of the network and 12 other services would be "enhanced".

The routes that are closing mainly serve rural parts of the county, and a further 13 routes that carried 182,000 passengers in June will run on reduced timetables.

In April, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), which has responsibility for transport in the county, failed to secure funding from the Department for Transport (DfT) for its Bus Strategy Improvement Plan.

The DfT said areas were chosen for funding "because of their ambition to repeat the success achieved in London, which drove up bus usage".

Anna Bailey, the Conservative leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council and a CPCA member, said: "I am hugely concerned about this situation for the whole of Cambridgeshire but particularly for the effect on East Cambridgeshire."

She added that the CPCA's emerging Local Transport Plan "puts buses front and centre trying to get people out of their cars".

The Labour Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Nik Johnson said the decision by Stagecoach East was "unacceptable".

"We are appalled that Stagecoach are pressing ahead with such severe changes to the network whilst continuing to accept the funding from the government that is designed to protect it," he said.

The mayor said the CPCA's officers were preparing "to take these threatened routes back out to the market" and re-tender them.

He also criticised the company for cutting routes despite receiving government funds mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

The CPCA added in a statement that the closure of the routes was a "commercial decision" by Stagecoach East and not connected to a lack of further funding from the DfT for the CPCA's bus strategy.

Route 12, between Ely, Cambridge and Newmarket, was among those being closed. It carried nearly 19,000 passengers in June 2022, 92% of the amount in June 2019.

The most popular route being cancelled is the 11/X11 service, connecting Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket and Cambridge.

That route carried more than 19,500 passengers in June 2022, 97% of the amount that used it in June 2019.

It also ran at a loss of more than £730,000, according to Stagecoach East figures.

Conservative MP Matt Hancock, whose constituency includes Newmarket, said: "For many people routes like this are a lifeline and I'm astonished at this announcement by Stagecoach, that has come completely out of the blue without any consultation.

"I've already had hundreds of emails from people who use the route regularly or have bought season tickets for the route.

"This decision would have a major impact on Newmarket if it goes ahead and I'm going to do everything I can to stop it."

St Ives will see five services close - four V-routes connecting with Boxworth, Somersham, Chatteris and Ramsey, and the St Ives Town Circle route.

Darren Roe, Stagecoach East managing director, said the company had made "some tough decisions that reflect the reality of how services are being used after the pandemic".

"Overall, services are operating at around 75% of pre-pandemic passenger levels, with concessionary travel for older people dropping to as low as 55%," he said.

He said the company could not "continue to operate services which we know are no longer financially viable".

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