Chatteris Allsorts
Jun. 18th, 2007 08:30 pmToday was my first bash around with a MultiBus ticket. This comes to us from Cambridgeshire County Council and is valid for unlimited travel around Cambridgeshire & Peterborough. It is also valid for some journeys a little over the border i.e. to/from Royston! It’s £1.50 more than a standard Stagecoach Cambridge/Peterborough DayRider+ (£4.50), but it is also valid on services provided by A&P Coaches, Burtons Coaches (not the Trumpington to Addenbrookes shuttle bus), Cavalier Travel, Cedar Coaches, Huntingdon & District, Myalls Coaches, and Whippet Coaches. This does open up a good bit of more potential, so I planned a “simple” circular trip to test it out. Firstly, left Royston on Stagecoach Cambridge 16106 on Service 26 – the driver was able to explain validity and the price of the ticket, which is good. Don’t quite know how many of these that would be sold around Royston (on the Herts side of the boundary), but maybe one or two more now.
On one of my previous visits to Cambridge with Caroline, I had spotted MAN 22278. It was new very briefly to Stagecoach Fife – running for just a few weeks from Glenrothes depot – before moving to Cambridge, where it has been ever since. This is why the registration number is uniquely out of place in Cambridge (sister 22279 is also still running around Oxford, as far as I know). Anyway, I’d been looking for it every time, but I never got it. I managed to snap it on Service citi2 in Emmanuel Street Cambridge...
... also spotted was a somewhat colourful mural on the back of one of the resident MAN’s…
Now, when I mentioned the Park & Ride Tridents last week, I forgot to point out the fact that there are two sand/gold coloured examples, which are used as spares on any route. I didn’t get one of those on camera, but I did get this example instead. Painted allover pink last Autumn for this promotion, it still remains in service. Not sure if one of the suggested Enviro’s will be painted up like this or not…
Now, plan was to get either the H&D Service 553 at 1035, or Service 555 at 1055, to Huntingdon. In the end I did a wander round the pedestrian area before coming back to the bus station for the 1055. There were a few more passengers than I expected, and it turned out that the 553 in front had been cut somewhere. The 1055 came in with their 5309 (R122 HNK), a Volvo B10BLE/Wright. One of that batch did of course end up with Strathtay! Anyway, the bus ran as a 555, but the driver dropped a person outside the RAF base (usually only served by the 553). Driving wasn’t the best, I’m afraid to say, but the driver did earn extra points for pulling over two police persons on the beat in central Cambridge. There was some construction work ongoing at one of the bus bollards, and stop/go signs were being used to control traffic… only someone set both sides to “go” at the same time…
Anyway, made it to Huntingdon in one piece, and waited around for the 1205 Stagecoach Peterborough Service 16 to Peterborough Bus Station. The bus arrived, Volvo Olympian 16070…
… and we loaded up well for the start of the 67 minute ride through to Peterborough. We passed various places in Huntingdon that looked slightly familiar from a previous drive-through visit, before passing RAF Alconbury and several villages, before paralleling and crossing the A1(M). From a rural single-track bridge to running alongside a motorway is always an interesting comparison!
On the way into Peterborough, I noticed that the Peacock pub had appeared to go for a renaming, in a slightly crude manner (notice the peacock still above the door!)
Upon arrival in Peterborough bus station, I was able to proceed through the Queensgate shopping centre, and through into a set of roadworks. Here, the council use the realtime displays to also show when the road will reopen…
Various vehicles were seen in Peterborough, including one of Cavalier Travel’s new Dart/MCV’s for Service 337…
… before I went for my next bus, Volvo/Alexander 20846, on Service X8 to Chatteris.
Service X8 (Cambridge – Peterborough) was recently cut in two – X9 to Cambridge to Chatteris, and X8 from Chatteris to Peterborough (more than likely because of the new drivers hours regulations for long routes). What may not be apparently obvious to a casual glance is that these services do meet up, and in fact, a DayRider+ (£4.50) is all you need for end-to-end travel. There are not that many X8’s running into Peterborough, but the 337 (pictured above) fills a few more gaps, meaning there is an hourly off-peak service. You can also use the 337 to connect to/from the X9 when you buy a Multibus ticket (£6.00), which is still cheap for a just-short-of-three hours bash! Stagecoach (to their credit) have put all this information together into a timetable leaflet in an unusual design (folded down to half A4, landscape). The leaflet includes a map of the Fens area (as the local area is known), and highlights where to change buses. It also mentions the £18 weekly MegaRider+ and £25 weekly Multibus tickets.
Anyway, I mentioned my plans to![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thebustocrookes, and he was somewhat excited. He mentioned that Chatteris was featured in a song by Half Man Half Biscuit, and would I mind snapping a pic of the town? Well, bus stop flag and destination blinds sufficed! The route in Chatteris has been tweaked for this change, and now means both services start/end at the same place – the bus shelter in Park Street, opposite the police station (diagonally opposite, as it turned out). The stop name is, however, “East Park Street St Martins Road”.
20856 (similar) arrived to take me on the X9 to Cambridge…
… and when I got in, 16082 was sitting waiting on the 26 to Royston. The driver of the X9 and 26 were very helpful in aiding potential passengers, as both were asked questions by passengers beyond their own route, and both answered politely and concisely! Also, the Multibus ticket was accepted without question by all drivers, so knowledge appears to be good.
Overall, a good day out. I was knackered as we started to leave Peterborough though... you can see all today's pictures here.
On one of my previous visits to Cambridge with Caroline, I had spotted MAN 22278. It was new very briefly to Stagecoach Fife – running for just a few weeks from Glenrothes depot – before moving to Cambridge, where it has been ever since. This is why the registration number is uniquely out of place in Cambridge (sister 22279 is also still running around Oxford, as far as I know). Anyway, I’d been looking for it every time, but I never got it. I managed to snap it on Service citi2 in Emmanuel Street Cambridge...
... also spotted was a somewhat colourful mural on the back of one of the resident MAN’s…
Now, when I mentioned the Park & Ride Tridents last week, I forgot to point out the fact that there are two sand/gold coloured examples, which are used as spares on any route. I didn’t get one of those on camera, but I did get this example instead. Painted allover pink last Autumn for this promotion, it still remains in service. Not sure if one of the suggested Enviro’s will be painted up like this or not…
Now, plan was to get either the H&D Service 553 at 1035, or Service 555 at 1055, to Huntingdon. In the end I did a wander round the pedestrian area before coming back to the bus station for the 1055. There were a few more passengers than I expected, and it turned out that the 553 in front had been cut somewhere. The 1055 came in with their 5309 (R122 HNK), a Volvo B10BLE/Wright. One of that batch did of course end up with Strathtay! Anyway, the bus ran as a 555, but the driver dropped a person outside the RAF base (usually only served by the 553). Driving wasn’t the best, I’m afraid to say, but the driver did earn extra points for pulling over two police persons on the beat in central Cambridge. There was some construction work ongoing at one of the bus bollards, and stop/go signs were being used to control traffic… only someone set both sides to “go” at the same time…
Anyway, made it to Huntingdon in one piece, and waited around for the 1205 Stagecoach Peterborough Service 16 to Peterborough Bus Station. The bus arrived, Volvo Olympian 16070…
… and we loaded up well for the start of the 67 minute ride through to Peterborough. We passed various places in Huntingdon that looked slightly familiar from a previous drive-through visit, before passing RAF Alconbury and several villages, before paralleling and crossing the A1(M). From a rural single-track bridge to running alongside a motorway is always an interesting comparison!
On the way into Peterborough, I noticed that the Peacock pub had appeared to go for a renaming, in a slightly crude manner (notice the peacock still above the door!)
Upon arrival in Peterborough bus station, I was able to proceed through the Queensgate shopping centre, and through into a set of roadworks. Here, the council use the realtime displays to also show when the road will reopen…
Various vehicles were seen in Peterborough, including one of Cavalier Travel’s new Dart/MCV’s for Service 337…
… before I went for my next bus, Volvo/Alexander 20846, on Service X8 to Chatteris.
Service X8 (Cambridge – Peterborough) was recently cut in two – X9 to Cambridge to Chatteris, and X8 from Chatteris to Peterborough (more than likely because of the new drivers hours regulations for long routes). What may not be apparently obvious to a casual glance is that these services do meet up, and in fact, a DayRider+ (£4.50) is all you need for end-to-end travel. There are not that many X8’s running into Peterborough, but the 337 (pictured above) fills a few more gaps, meaning there is an hourly off-peak service. You can also use the 337 to connect to/from the X9 when you buy a Multibus ticket (£6.00), which is still cheap for a just-short-of-three hours bash! Stagecoach (to their credit) have put all this information together into a timetable leaflet in an unusual design (folded down to half A4, landscape). The leaflet includes a map of the Fens area (as the local area is known), and highlights where to change buses. It also mentions the £18 weekly MegaRider+ and £25 weekly Multibus tickets.
Anyway, I mentioned my plans to
thebustocrookes, and he was somewhat excited. He mentioned that Chatteris was featured in a song by Half Man Half Biscuit, and would I mind snapping a pic of the town? Well, bus stop flag and destination blinds sufficed! The route in Chatteris has been tweaked for this change, and now means both services start/end at the same place – the bus shelter in Park Street, opposite the police station (diagonally opposite, as it turned out). The stop name is, however, “East Park Street St Martins Road”.20856 (similar) arrived to take me on the X9 to Cambridge…
… and when I got in, 16082 was sitting waiting on the 26 to Royston. The driver of the X9 and 26 were very helpful in aiding potential passengers, as both were asked questions by passengers beyond their own route, and both answered politely and concisely! Also, the Multibus ticket was accepted without question by all drivers, so knowledge appears to be good.
Overall, a good day out. I was knackered as we started to leave Peterborough though... you can see all today's pictures here.
