Wednesday 7 April 2010

Spot the difference

No, not another comment on the Labservatives - though that would still be justified.

It's that I've got a meeting in March today, so I've had to download the new bus timetable. We had changes to the timetable from Stagecoach on 14 February, now it's another set of changes starting from Easter Sunday. With timetables chopping and changing like this, it's hardly going to incentivise people to ditch their cars and switch to public transport, especially when the service is so sparse to begin with.

Playing Spot the Difference between the February and April versions, I see the last bus from Cambridge Science Park to Sutton is now at 1757 instead of 1847. The last bus from Ely to Sutton is at 1845 instead of 1935. More salami slicing of public transport.

Sutton will now get a stop on the 0730 X7 bus going directly to Drummer Street in Cambridge, but that's at the expense of people travelling from further up the route in March, Wimblington, Doddington and Chatteris, whose bus will now arrive in Drummer Street at 0825 instead of 0810, which may be too late for some people travelling on from the city centre. Similarly, Sutton now gets a stop on the return X7 at the end of the working day, but it will leave Drummer Street at 1815 instead of 1735, getting to March at 1935 instead of 1900.

We really do need the Competition Commission to investigate bus services, particularly in places like North East Cambridgeshire where one company has such a monopoly.

We also need county councils like Cambridgeshire to take a far more active part in overseeing and regulating bus services, particularly in rural areas like this - and to be given additional powers to do so if necessary, in the interests of the travelling public.

Meanwhile, will the latest changes to the timetable last more than seven weeks this time?

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