Newmarket residents react to Stagecoach bus route cut plan

Hundreds of people are expected at a council meeting to oppose plans to cut 18 bus services across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The BBC spoke to passengers in Newmarket who rely on routes that Stagecoach East describes as "unsustainable".

According to data seen by the BBC, the 18 routes carried almost 90,000 passengers in June and lost £4.7m a year.

Route 12 between Ely, Cambridge and Newmarket is among those being scheduled to close, but the most popular route due to be axed is the 11/X11 service connecting Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket and Cambridge. That route carried more than 19,500 passengers in June and ran at a loss, said Stagecoach East.

The bus company said the services that were due to be cut were only 6% of the network and 12 other services would be "enhanced".

Maria Harris, who lives in a residential area of Newmarket, relies on buses for shopping, days out and generally getting around.

"We've got facilities here and a lot of people are going to miss out," she says.

"What about OAPs, young people getting to college and schools? How are we going to get to GP appointments, Addenbrooke's or West Suffolk Hospital?

"How will people do their shopping? I can't walk far these days."

Of the meeting, she says: "We shall have to see what they come up with. We need continuity."

"It's absolutely horrendous," says Russell Bradnam, who uses buses to get to and from work.

"I really don't know how they justify such a drastic decision and not even consider the fact there's going to be so many people affected by it.

"Not just with commuting but children, elderly people, workers, especially with the current situation with fuel prices, people are going to be more reliant and should be more enticed to use public transport.

"I'd find it so hard to get to work, I would have to change hours. I'd have to adapt substantially and not really know if it was going to succeed. I know other people that it will have the same impact on."

Beckie Brown's daughter relies on her bus to get to college in Bury St Edmunds.

"I'm absolutely horrified," says Ms Brown. "There's no post-16 education option in Newmarket, so kids have to go to Cambridge or Bury.

"I don't know how she is going to get there. The bus stop is outside our house, it's door-to-door and the train station is an hour's walk away.

"I spent £630 on an annual student pass to find out six weeks later they are cancelling the service."

Chris O'Neill chairs the development and planning committee at the Independent-led Newmarket Town Council, which is meeting on Monday.

He says buses are "standing room only" to and from work.

"I am gobsmacked - I don't understand the 'unsustainable' element at all," he says.

"It will cut off communities completely.

"People from villages have been messaging me to say we can't go to the doctors, we can't go to the dentists, we can't visit relatives in care homes. It's isolating people.

"We want a proper bus service for this century."

Stagecoach East says it plans to invest in and improve other services and has apologised for the impact on communities.

It says patronage on the 18 routes had dropped to 70% of what it was pre-Covid and are no longer sustainable.

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