Stagecoach X5 Oxford-Cambridge

[Bletchleyite]

Knowing the area over the last 20 years, the only significant "new" road was the Bedford bypass from Jnc 13 of the M1 to Black Cat - however, I'm not sure that is a viable route for the X5 if it's going to serve Central MK and Coachway.

If they ran on the M1 between J13 and J14 it could well be quicker than the current route, but the problem is unreliability - that's why the 99 has a layover of nearly an hour in MK. The J13-MK part of the 421 was classically seriously congested, but now it's being/been dualled, this could be worth revisiting.

Certainly people driving from MK to Bedford would tend to go 421 these days without even thinking about it.

I'm not sure serving Coachway is essential; Kingston would probably be a reasonable substitute if sending it the other way (as the 99 does). Indeed, Kingston might prove more popular with people commuting to the warehouse developments - at certain times that makes up a very large proportion of the 99's traffic.

The rest of the route is dictated to an extent by demand - you *could* by pass Buckingham, but it would lose passengers, you *could* by pass Bicester - same issue, so I'm struggling to see how you'd re-route the X5 without causing a load of other knock on issues.

Buckingham was bypassed (calling at Tesco only) for years, they actually brought it back into the town centre, presumably they felt it would grow custom.

 

[A0wen]

If they ran on the M1 between J13 and J14 it could well be quicker than the current route, but the problem is unreliability - that's why the 99 has a layover of nearly an hour in MK. The J13-MK part of the 421 was classically seriously congested, but now it's being/been dualled, this could be worth revisiting.

Certainly people driving from MK to Bedford would tend to go 421 these days without even thinking about it.

I'm not sure serving Coachway is essential; Kingston would probably be a reasonable substitute if sending it the other way (as the 99 does). Indeed, Kingston might prove more popular with people commuting to the warehouse developments - at certain times that makes up a very large proportion of the 99's traffic.

Google Maps disagrees with you - from Coachway to Bedford Town Centre it has the A422 route at 14 miles / 21 mins and M1 A421 at 16 miles / 24 mins.

And people travelling from Bedford probably aren't travelling from the town centre - which is where the X5 is heading to.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

10876 on the X5 in Oxford (pictured below)

I wonder if the X5 will return to Cambridge or whether the 905 is here to stay.

 

[Ianno87]

10876 on the X5 in Oxford.

I wonder if the X5 will return to Cambridge or whether the 905 is here to stay

It'll depend what happens when the 905 Tender period ends.

I suspect the split will remain permanent, personally.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It'll depend what happens when the 905 Tender period ends.

I suspect the split will remain permanent, personally.

I suspect Stagecoach will be watching what happens with East West Rail - while the X5 does serve some places EWR won't (e.g. Buckingham) I can't see it staying in its current form, possibly more as a less frequent extension of the S5 route instead. Unless EWR make some poor decisions on fares, it's fairly rare for a bus directly competing with rail to do particularly well.

 

[gray1404]

So your thinking the S5 may be extended to MKC a couple of times an hour? @Bletchleyite

 

[Bletchleyite]

So your thinking the S5 may be extended to MKC a couple of times an hour? @Bletchleyite

It wouldn't surprise me to see that, but only hourly as demand will be much reduced when EWR comes along.

That said, what EWR doesn't do is provide for MKC-Bedford - so maybe the 905 extended back to MKC, or maybe it would just continue as is.

 

[gray1404]

I would like to see the bus link between MKC and Oxford continue as it's a nice way for me to use my ENCTS pass having caught the train from Liverpool to MKC (and onto Oxford and Reading) avoiding XC. So an S5 extension, even if only hourly, would be welcomed.

That said we also don't know what the future of LNR Only fares (the ticket I currently use) is going to be under GBR so I guess there are too many pending variables at the moment on this one. @Bletchleyite