News from the East Anglian Branch of Railfuture, edited by Martin Thorne and Jerry Alderson.
Railfuture News Snippets 391 - 31/10/2025
Mark Crosskill is the new chair of PENRUG, taking over from John Saunders. Mark has been the editor of their newletter for some time.
GUIDED BUSWAY
Cambridgeshire County Council impose severe speed limits on entire guided busway causing spat with Stagecoach East
In August 2025 Cambridgeshire County Council reduced the speed limit from 50mph to 30mph at Histon — over a one-and-a-half-mile section between Pagram Way and the Park Lane crossing, near where a 13-year-old boy was hit by a bus on 4th March 2025 — to improve safety, particularly for pedestrians.
The busway speed limit has now been lowered further to 30mph (48km/h), and 20mph at crossing points, until new permanent fencing and barriers are installed.
This has led to a bitter, and public, row between Cambridgeshire County Council and bus operator Stagecoach East. Previously, before the new fencing was announced, buses could reach speeds of around 56mph (90 km/h) along some sections of the busway. Stagecoach East, which expressed "extreme disappointment" at the short notice given, predicts the reductions add up to 45 minutes on some passenger journeys. Railfuture calculated htat if you do a 10-mile journey at the original 56mph speed then it takes 11 minutes for that journey, if at top speed all the time, but at 30mph it takes 20 minutes if at top speed all the time. If the entire journey was at 20mph then it would be 30 minutes i.e. 19 minutes longer. Stagecoast East is clearly referring to a return journey, so at worst it could be 45 minutes longer if you have the longest-possible journey (St Ives to Biomedical Campus), and all that ignores the fact that buses were never at 56mph for the entire journey. The busway is 16 miles long.
Back in April 2024, fencing was been installed between Hills Road bridge and Long Road Bridge, where two of the fatalities occurred. The first phase, commencing on Saturday 12 October 2025, will be a 300-metre stretch on the southern section between Trumpington and the Biomedical Campus, starting at Long Road Bridge. Contractors will dig foundations and install posts, panels, and emergency gates.
The new fencing (costed at £4.7m) is being installed to improve safety after three deaths on the busway, which led to the prosecution of the county council by the Health and Safety Executive with a £6million fine being imposed in April 2025.
Stagecoach East put out a YouTube video presented by their MD, Darren Roe. He described it as a "personal message to Busway customers". In the video, he said that there would be "significant disruption across the whole of the network" from Monday 5th October. Further disruption is expected from Monday 13th October "when the section from Trumpington to Cambridge station is closed to two-way bus traffic", i.e. the busway lane closest to the railway line will remain open throughout the work.
Mr Roe claimed that Stagecoach was told on 1st October, with four days to react, although the council said that it spoke to Stagecoach "specifically about the speed limit three weeks ago" and that the restrictions are being implemented in partnership with the police. Stagecoach would expect such significant changes to take at least three months to plan, and has had to work through the night to prepare for the changes with the aim being to maintain frequency, which will obviously be a challenge as each bus journey will take longer. Railfuture notes that none of the articles covering this story mention whether additional buses or drivers will be required.
Not mentioned in the video is that the busway and maintenance track will be closed fully from Monday 13th October until Friday 7th November from 09:30 to 16:00 between Gatehouse Road and Station Road, in Histon. The closure occurs works are carried out to install fencing next to the Busway.
A drop-in event about the fencing project will be held on Tuesday 21st October from 17:00 to 20:30 at Histon Baptist Church.
A 15mph speed limit will also be introduced on the maintenance track, which runs alongside the busway. Motorcycles will be banned on the track, as well as electric bikes that exceed 15mph, and these restrictions will also be implemented by Cambridgeshire Police. Railfuture assues that this is to minimise the chance of them steering onto the busway to avoid a pedestrian.
The Busway fencing works are hoped to be complete by the end of 2026, and restrictions will be in place until then. The council said the speed limit would be revised as each section of fencing was completed — presumably once the southern section is fully fenced the speed limits will be lifted on that - one would not expect drivers get confused by having different speed limits on north and south.
Paul Bristow, the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, has described the Busway disruption as "an enormous problem", saying "I would plead with the County Council, contractors and bus operators to get around the table and talk regularly. If they can be speeded up, they must be. If mitigation measures can be put in place, they must be."
See www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/public-transport-park-and-ride-and-guided-busway/guided-busway-improvements for the County Council's busway works information page on its website.
Cambridge News had a field day, having scoured comments on websites and social media:
- Several readers challenged the 20mph limit. One reader, Calumen Nomen comments: "So ordinary buses on ordinary roads can run at up to 60 mph, but specially expensive buses using specially expensive track which are unavailable to any other vehicle can only do 20?
- Oldgreenman agrees: "I agree this is senseless, following the logic of safety fences along the busway we need fences to separate ALL PAVEMENTS AND CYCLE PATHS from buses and other traffic. This safety measure is inconsistent with logic and cost."
- Penelope3 remarks: "Not going to be finished till the end of 2026! Crikey the Berlin Wall went up quicker.
- Vicky Aldred writes: "It's total madness to make public transport much worse at the same time that parking restrictions in Cambridge are coming into effect. The busway issue clearly affects safety and must be prioritised, but the plans to remove on-street parking in several Cambridge streets should surely be postponed to compensate."
The information shown above has been drawn from numerous news articles in early October 2025.
www.hihub.info/news/busway-speed-reduction-an-enormous-problem-says-mayor/ [Histon and Impington Hub]
www.huntspost.co.uk/news/25511807.cambridgeshire-guided-busway-30mph-speed-reduction/ [3 October]
www.huntspost.co.uk/news/25520426.stagecoach-hit-guided-busway-30mph-speed-limit/ [7 October]
www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/news-opinion/busway-speed-limits-slammed-make-32634104 [8 October]
www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/stagecoach-criticism-guided-busway-speed-32617600 [6 October]
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4jz543ldpo [7 October]
www.cambridgeindependent.co.uk/news/45-minute-delays-could-hit-cambridgeshire-s-guided-busway-af-9435931 [3 October]
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5qp1dww16o [1 October]
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Railfuture East Anglia Branch News Snippets 391 - 31/10/2025
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