County Tories urged to look again at axed city shuttle bus

Cambridge City Councillors are fighting to get the county council to look again at the axed city centre shuttle bus.

They want the bus, which provided a vital link to the city centre for elderly and disabled people, to be included in the county council’s review of bus subsidies.

It was axed in the first round of cuts despite pleas to spare it from numerous residents and city councillors.

The Tory-run county council, which planned to axe all bus subsidies across the county to save £2.7 million, has agreed a stay of execution for the remainder of the threatened services while a consultation and in-depth assessment is launched.

Tim Ward, Cambridge Executive Councillor for Planning and Sustainable Transport said: “The decision to cut the city centre shuttle bus was taken without any consultation with residents. The Tories on the county council had no idea how many people relied on this bus or how its removal would impact on their lives.

“Following the outcry about the withdrawal of bus subsidies generally, they have halted the process to allow residents to have their say; but this won’t help the city centre shuttle unless we can get it included in that consultation.

“It is completely unfair that our residents have lost their bus while other services may be saved. They should have the same opportunity to fight for their service.”

Cllr Ward will put forward a motion to members of Cambridge City Council calling on them to welcome the county council’s decision to consult on the withdrawal of bus subsidies and asking for the city centre shuttle bus to be included in the process.

The motion will be seconded by Cambridge City Council Leader, Sian Reid.

She said: “The city centre shuttle bus was a lifeline for many elderly and disabled residents of our city and yet it was taken away without any consultation.

“The county council’s decision to carry out a full consultation on the withdrawal of the remaining subsidies discriminates against the city centre shuttle which was taken away without the benefit of this process.”

Cllr Reid has also been fighting to save the threatened 199 bus which runs twice a week in her Newnham ward.

She added: “I welcome the fact that there will now be proper consultation. The 199 service is an invaluable way for the elderly and less mobile to reach the shops and have social contact with friends and acquaintances.”

Petition to save the City Centre Circular Bus

The Tories running the County Council have decided to ignore residents’ wishes and push ahead with a plan which will see dozens of subsidised bus services lost in the next four years.

A likely early casualty is the free Cambridge city centre “Circular” bus, which the rural Conservatives regard as a luxury. This service was introduced alongside the pedestrianisation scheme, so that people who cannot walk long distances would still have access to it. Losing it would be disastrous for the pedestrian area.

Cambridge LibDems have launched a petition to try and save this service from the axe. You can sign the petition online.

Real Time Passenger Information

Recently I've been contacted by a local resident who had a very good question on the Real Time Bus Information signs like the ones pictured that have been cropping up across the city. The question was related to the information being displayed be the signs - particularly the sign pictured on the right which is the one at the Northern end of Northfield Avenue (Armitage Way).

I'm in the process of providing a written response to the resident but I thought the information I've been able to find out might be useful for other people as well.

Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) is a project begin run by the County Council (as opposed to Stagecoach) it's based around monitoring hardware being installed in Buses, training for drivers (so they can log into the system and configure their bus service), signs similar to the ones pictured setup across the City, and a wireless network to allow the signs to be updated as the buses progress around their route.

The basic premise is that the system allows the exact location of buses to be tracked minute by minute and that information communicated to specially-equipped bus stops along the route so that passengers know when to expect the bus.

Of course there will be times when the signal between the bus and bus stops doesn't get through - in this case the bus stop will display timetable information (rather than real-time). You can tell what sort of information you're getting by looking at the display; if the display is saying "Xmin" then you're getting real-time bus information. If, on the other hand, you're seeing a time (i.e 16:49, 16:55, etc in the picture) then what you're seeing is timetable information.

There are five reasons why a bus stop may not be displaying real-time information:

1. A non-fitted bus is used on an RT route;
2. The driver has not logged onto the system properly;
3. Due to adverse weather conditions, the displays or the buses may not be able to pick up or send radio signals;
4. The display may have not received a recent update;
5. The kit on the bus is malfunctioning.

Issue 1 shouldn't be a problem on either Citi 1 or Citi 4 routes; all buses are fitted with the necessary hardware. Occasionally other buses need to be used and these don't always have the hardware installed (for example Citi 2 and 3 routes are on the plan to be upgraded in 2010) but this is an exception.

Issue 2 is being addressed by Stagecoach through driver training. Issue 3 has no solution - well, none within the control of the County anyway! The County is actively addressing Issue 4 with more physical inspections and the use of automated monitoring software. Issue 5 is usually found and reported by the driver.

As I'm sure you can appreciate it's very difficult for people who are looking at Timetable rather than Real-time information to work out which issue is actually preventing the system from working. As a general rule though you can tell if it is an Operator error if there is some Real Time information being displayed. If everything is timetabled, then it is most likely a technical fault.

In the event of you seeing a faulty bus stop if possible you should report it to the County. You can do this online through the 'Have your say' section on the County Councils' website or you can call the Contact centre on 0345 045 5200 - this will direct you to the Passenger Transport or Traffic Management team who should both be able to help.

The good news, for people who plan their journey in advance, is that you don't need to be standing at a bus stop in order to access Real Time information. You can access a really-quite-impressive map by clicking here, the information on the County Council website is available here, and if you happen to want to view this on your mobile phone there is a special website here.

If you have any questions leave a comment or you can contact one of the team.

Council tax bill: £1 in every £5 on bus-fare bill

£1 in every £5 paid by Cambridge's Council tax payers is being taken by Stagecoach and other bus operators to fund free bus travel for elderly people many of whom don't even live in the city.

The dramatic impact of the bus scheme has been highlighted in the five-year financial strategy just published by the City Council.

The bus scheme devised by Gordon Brown penalises places like Cambridge,which are forced to pay the bus fares for all elderly people who get on a bus in the city, including return fares for people who live outside Cambridge.

The result is that instead of costing the £1.2 million per year that is provided by Government, the scheme in 2008/9 is expected to cost Cambridge £2.5 million with the additional £1.3 million being met by Cambridge tax payers.

Whilst we support the scheme it is another example of Gordon Brown's Labour government coming up with a headline grabbing idea, failing to fund it properly, and then trying to make others take the blame for the problems.

Ian Nimmo-Smith, Liberal Democrat leader of the City Council, said

The way the government has botched bringing in free bus travel for the elderly is disastrous. We already knew the scheme was underfunded so we had put £680,000 into our budgets, but it is so popular that we now need to find a further £620,000 ontop of that.

Cambridge City Council could be forced to cut hundreds of thousands of pounds of services to meet this unfair bill we've been landed with by Mr Brown.

Cambridge City Council was rated as Excellent and as one of the top four financially competent councils by the Audit Commission.

The scheme is a good idea but the Labour government should play fair and pay fair.

Give us our Bus Stop back!

The works on the Guided Busway junction for Milton Road have led to the closure of the bus stop with no alternative bus stop provided.

This is causing problems for elderly, ill, or families with young children who rely on this stop.

Cllr McGovern raised this issue at the Guided Busway Local Liaison Forum last night and was told that no suitable alternative site could be found. However the suggestion of a temporary stop on Greenend Rd for the Citi2 service seemed not to have been considered.

Your Focus team have written to Bob Menzies, in charge of the Busway project, and Andy Campbell, the MD of Stagecoach in Cambridge, to ask that the situation be re-examined.

Milton Rd Trees: AJC report

A report to the Area Transport Joint Committee (a combined County and City council committee) says that there is no need for extra bus priority measures on Milton Road!

However even now the report, while acknowledging the effort of the City Council to get trees replanted, says...

"The potential for future bus priority measures and cycleway improvements including possible hybrid cycle ways (i.e. wider on-road cycle lanes with some degree of physical separation from the neighbouring traffic lanes) will need to be taken into account as part of any tree planting plan."

So we still don't have agreement to replace all the stumps.

The AJC meets on 14 July. We will update you after the meeting!

October's Focus on King's Hedges out soon

You should soon receive delivery of the latest paper focus.

It contains details of David Howarth's campaign to save Brookfields Hospital from closure and an update on the problems of our local bus services.

If you could help us by delivering the Focus in your street please let us know.

Stagecoach boss admits...buses on Milton Rd and King's Hedges Rd

Andy Campbell, the Cambridgeshire Stagecoach boss, bravely faced the public at the NAC, but it is clear that he doesn't share the concerns of local residents about a decent bus service.

On the 9/X9 services, when I challenged him, he did admit that they are not really relevant to those people who have lost the use of the Park and Ride service. Those services have existed for some time and he himself admitted they were designed for the residents of the villages and not the City. He also admitted that the every 20 minute service to Cambourn is not a replacement for an every ten minute service to Addenbrookes. This is despite the fact that the Conservative run County insisted that the stops would not be removed without a decent replacement.

The Park & Ride could be made to stop on Milton Rd off-peak as the buses often run nearly empty in the day, and stop efficiently in the peak by providing on street ticket machines or selling tickets at the local shops.

He also refused to consider extending the Citi4 to Buchan street, despite the fact that the buses currently sit idle as they can't go to Arbury Park until the building finishes.

More positively any deviation from route should be reported. He seemed annoyed that drivers might be failing to follow the correct route. You can complain to Stagecoach directly or via us, but be sure to provide the date, time, route number and location.

North Area Committee

This Thursday is NAC day. It takes place at Manor Community College, on Arbury Road. It starts at 7.30pm, but before that is a presentation about grants to local organisations.

On the agenda on Thursday...

• Buses: The Managing Director of Stagecoach Cambs, Andrew Campbell, will be facing the public
• Policing: a report on police activities and priorities
• Leisure and community development grants
• Environmental improvement grants

There is also an open forum to raise issues with all the North Area councillors.

So come along on Thursday 20th September.

Milton Road buses campaign

This is just a quick update. We are still trying to get the changes to the Park&Ride service reversed.

The Conservative run County Council have just proudly announced the dropping of even more stops, including the Arbury Road crossroads stop that some people from the ward have used since the Golden Hind stop was axed.

Kevin Wilkins, the Liberal Democrat County Councillor for West Chesterton, has been writing to officers raising the main problems, and trying to suggest alternative solutions to their claimed problems with the Park&Ride. If we have any news we will let you know.

(Partial) Victory on Milton Road Buses

Following the effors of local residents, including your local councillors, Stagecoach are now running a regular bus service down Milton Rd. Stagecoach and the County Council finally accept that the situation was ridiculous.

Whilst it isn't as good as the Park&Ride which it replaces, we now have buses every 20 minutes to the city centre, and with only one change needed to get to Addenbrookes. Combined with the number 9 we now have 5 services an hour

Now we need to get Stagecoach to put the city centre stops on the timetables.