We mentioned here before that some surprising changes to our bus services were coming on 3rd January. The detailed timetable has now been published and can currently be found online here.
In Brief
The peak service 9 buses between Ely and Cambridge, which serve Milton, Waterbeach and Landbeach will now operate as X9 and won’t serve our villages. Instead the Citi 2 will, once again, start serving Milton and also Landbeach and Waterbeach at peak times.
In addition we currently only have one late evening Citi 2 service back to Milton, the 22:39 from Addenbrooke’s, which leaves the city centre at 23:03 and arrives at Milton at 23:27. We are now to get two more, earlier, departures from Addenbrooke’s: at 21:39 and 22:09.
In Detail
In the morning the service 9 north towards Ely is unaffected but we will lose the following five buses (times from the stop opposite Osteria Waggon and Horses, so adjust slightly for other stops in the village):
| Service 9 | 06:24 | 06:54 | 07:24 | 07:44 | 08:14 |
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We will gain the following seven buses:
| Service Citi 2 | 06:16 | 06:36 | 06:56 | 07:12 | 07:32 | 07:52 | 08:12 |
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After that it reverts to just service 9 through the village with the next bus at 08:56 (so pretty much as now) and continues that way until the 16:45 service 9 from Drummer Street which get to Milton at 17:01.
Thereafter we lose the following four buses (times from Drummer Street Bay 6):
| Service 9 | 17:15 | 17:45 | 18:15 | 19:15 |
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We will gain the following six buses (times from St Andrew’s Street S2):
| Service Citi 2 | 17:33 | 17:53 | 18:13 | 18:33 | 18:53 | 19:13 |
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The other more surprising addition is two more Citi 2 buses before the last one:
| Stop | New | New | Existing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Addenbrooke’s | 21:39 | 22:09 | 22:39 |
| St Andrew’s Street S2 | 22:03 | 22:33 | 23:03 |
| Milton Waggon & Horses | 22:24 | 22:54 | 23:24 |
So as we said before it’s a bit of a curate’s egg: if you’re a commuter heading into the city you may not welcome the prospect of the longer journey time the Citi 2 route implies, but on the other hand you get more buses to choose from, both morning and evening. For workers and visitors at Addenbrooke’s heading home the additional Citi 2 services may be welcome too.
As always the elephant in the room is the Park & Ride service. If you’re heading into the city it offers a fast service as it makes fewer stops than the 9 and a lot fewer than the Citi 2 so it’s always worth at least considering when planning a bus journey.
Thank you to Caroline for the heads up that the timetable was online and David for the analysis.
