New bus routes and improvements to existing routes are on the way, paid for by the Mayor’s Precept.
Locally these will include an additional Ely Zipper between Sutton and Ely taking in villages in between. And a new service will operate between Ely and Longstanton Park & Ride, via Witchford, Sutton, Earith and Willingham—something I have been lobbying for for years.
A demand-responsive travel solution for rural areas across most of East Cambridgeshire is also being worked on. Development will focus on Isleham and Little Downham and wider communities.
I’m delighted that significant moves are being made to improve bus provision locally—despite the Leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council voting against this funding when the Combined Authority Board was asked to approve the budget.
The routes still need to be procured and individual posters for each route will be released in the summer.
The Combined Authority’s web page on the bus proposals includes district-by-district explanations of the proposed routes, with maps. There’s also a very quick survey to fill in—please do!
This is good news. When my wife and I first moved to Sutton 17 years ago, there was an hourly bus service running from March to Cambridge that was slowly eroded leaving what is in place today.
If additional services can be provided in the area to give options for transport links (with hopefully not too limited start/finish times) this would encourage more use of such services and assist those without access to their own vehicles.
Yes, it is really good news!
Great news! Thank you Lorna for all your hard work and persistence.