Stagecoach Littleport to Cambridge Number 9 bus service cuts

Stagecoach announced the Number 9 service between Littleport and Cambridge will be reduced from 10 buses each way Monday-Saturday to just three.  

The route also serves communities in Ely, Little Thetford, Stretham, Landbeach, Waterbeach and Milton. 

Since the changes were announced, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has offered funding for an additional bus. 

But the office of Lucy Frazer states this still leaves services cut by 40 per cent when the changes are introduced on April 14.  

She is now calling on Dr Nik Johnson, the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, to "step up” and “protect this vital route now”. 

In a statement, Ms Frazer said: “Many of my constituents have already been in touch to tell me how much this change to the Number 9 service will impact them. 

“If Stagecoach won’t provide the service local people need, the Combined Authority must step-up.  

“Earlier this year, the Mayor decided to increase his share of Council Tax by a massive 200 per cent.  

“He said this was to protect and improve bus services. The Mayor must protect this vital route now.” 

East Cambridgeshire councillors have also been vocal about the issue. 

Cllr David Ambrose Smith, the county councillor for Littleport insisting that “a full timetable must be restored” considering the Combined Authority’s precept increase. 

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Cllr David Ambrose, the county councillor for Littleport. (Image: East Cambridgeshire Conservatives)In response, Dr Johnson explained his team is trying to find a way to salvage the route. 

He said: “Our aim is to restore as much of the timetable as possible, but right now our options are limited.  

“Deregulation has led to years of underinvestment and that decline is felt most in rural areas.  

“When operators find services do not meet with their expectations for profitability, it’s left to the Combined Authority to do its best to keep services going.  

“That is not a sustainable way to run public transport and is why we’re working to comprehensively reform how services are designed, built, and managed.”   

He added: “We are stepping in, we’ll do everything we can with our existing powers... 

“... but to truly solve these kinds of problems we’ll have to fundamentally reform how bus services are managed and that’s exactly what we at the Combined Authority are trying to do.” 

Dr Nik Johnson, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor. (Image: Joanna Taylor)Meanwhile, a Change.org petition titled “Stop the cuts to Littleport’s Bus Service” has signed by over 850 people and will be presented to Dr Johnson tomorrow (March 20). 

Emma Mayoux-Andrews, who set up the petition, says in the introduction that the service reductions “threatens to disrupt the lives and livelihoods of many residents”.   

She uses the bus as there’s no need to navigate drop kerbs and a blind corner to the unmanned Littleport Railway Station in a mobility scooter.  

In her view, a key problem is the Number 9 service has been “both changed and cut” and the one early bus will take 44 minutes longer to get to Cambridge.  

She added it “will be useless for anyone going to work in Cambridge for 9am, and because it takes so long, it’ll be hard to get another service in that doesn’t end up competing”.  

“So this petition calls on the CPCA to move to a franchised system to give passengers more transparency and control over our services,” Emma said. 

Stagecoach is cutting back its Number 9 bus service between Littleport and Cambridge. (Image: Archant)Darren Roe, Managing Director of Stagecoach East, said the Number 9 service has “not returned to anything like its pre-Covid customer numbers” and the changes mean it is providing services when people want to travel.   

He said: “This will give the 9 Service the best chance to be sustainable into the future and will mean that customers will still be able to access local shops and services.”