Key bus routes can stay by cutting others - mayor

Two "key" bus routes at risk of being cut by an operator could be saved by stopping three lesser used services, said a Conservative mayor.

Stagecoach East is due to stop its route nine bus service, which links Littleport to Ely and Cambridge, and the 31 route from Ramsey to Whittlesey.

Passengers told the BBC cuts to the services would have a negative effect on people living in the area.

An alternative proposal from Paul Bristow, the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, suggested stopping the south Cambridgeshire Tiger On Demand public transport service and the bus routes number 15 and 8A.

The proposal will be put forward to the combined authority on 22 July and was estimated to save about £531,000 a year, Bristow said.

The estimated cost of running the 31 and nine services, due to axed by Stagecoach, was £500,000.

Brian, who asked not to include his surname, lives in Ramsey and has two sons who use the 31 bus to get to school in Whittlesey.

He said: "It's a lifeline for us because when we are working we can't get them to school.

"But it's not just my sons: it's for people looking to go to work, medical appointments and not just going into Whittlesey, but to Stanground or college - there's a lot of people involved."

Stagecoach East previously said cuts and changes to its services in the county were necessary "to keep the local bus network viable".

It added the changes followed a £1m rise in National Insurance annually, which put the price of provision up for "services already struggling to cover their cost of operation".

Bristow said he wanted to save services that connected major towns and cities such as Chatteris, Ely, Littleport and Ramsey with Cambridge and Peterborough.

The bus route 15 from Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire, to Royston, Hertfordshire, cost £50,668.61 to run in the year to April 2025 and it carried 281 passengers - which is £180 per passenger.

The service 8A that runs between March and Cottenham had 1,969 passenger journeys in 2024-25, costing about £100.33 per passenger.

South Cambridgeshire Tiger on Demand service, which is part of the precept funded services, had 1,654 passenger journeys in the first three months of operation and cost about £180.11 per passenger.

"You have to make a decision at some point about how much you're willing to subsidise," Bristow said.

"I don't think [services such as the 15] are justifiable especially when we could end up losing services like the 31 and the number nine.

"I am going to put to my board that we divert that money spent on those services to saving the 31 and the nine where the subsidy required was lower. "

The 31 between Cambridge and Fowlmere, was estimated to cost about £76.89 per passenger.

Lucy Nethsingha, a Liberal Democrat MP and leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "It is crucial that the bus services nine and 31, which Stagecoach have decided to cut, are retained; but saving those services by cutting services to residents in other areas is not the way forward.

"It is enormously disappointing that Mayor Paul Bristow didn't discuss the impact of the cuts he is proposing with the county council before the papers were published."

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