Stagecoach X5 Oxford-Cambridge

[Andy Pacer]

I would agree, I think a general rule of thumb at present is traffic is back, passengers arent.

 

[Robertj21a]

Have normal road traffic levels not returned in Cambridge? They have in MK, though that's also because people are driving instead of going by bus, not because the commuters are back (they aren't).

I doubt that traffic levels across the country are, in general, back to pre-Covid levels given the numbers furloughed or working from home. Plus schools are only just starting to go back. It's certainly busier on the roads than it has been recently but not yet back to the jams and peak problems.

 

[Andy Pacer]

I doubt that traffic levels across the country are, in general, back to pre-Covid levels given the numbers furloughed or working from home. Plus schools are only just starting to go back. It's certainly busier on the roads than it has been recently but not yet back to the jams and peak problems.

Leicester is certainly getting there, afternoons especially.

 

[gingerheid]

I note that post-Lockdown the Busway is operating every 20 minutes on each route as opposed to every 15 mins. I imagine East will want those coaches back sooner rather than later so they can ramp up the Busway again

There will be a huge number of spare busway vehicles. The busway had been just about to see a massive service increase, with a replacement fleet, before covid struck. There would have been greatly enhanced peak frequencies on the core and new hourly services to Alconbury, Brampton, Chatteris & Somersham.

 

[CBlue]

There will be a huge number of spare busway vehicles. The busway had been just about to see a massive service increase, with a replacement fleet, before covid struck. There would have been greatly enhanced peak frequencies on the core and new hourly services to Alconbury, Brampton, Chatteris & Somersham.

Indeed at the moment the Busway services have been heavily cut back. All the service A and B extensions have been replaced with peak time feeder services or other replacement routes, leaving just the guideway stretches itself plus Huntingdon.

 

[Ianno87]

Have normal road traffic levels not returned in Cambridge? They have in MK, though that's also because people are driving instead of going by bus, not because the commuters are back (they aren't).

Not the near-daily gridlock on weekdays that was the case pre-Covid. City traffic is very quiet in the mornings, the ring roads are busier getting to the Biomedical Campus etc.

 

[route101]

Travelling on this route soon. Is there a day ticket for this route? There is one for Oxford area.

 

[Ianno87]

Travelling on this route soon. Is there a day ticket for this route? There is one for Oxford area.

It is covered by the East Dayrider Gold (£15 for an Adult).

 

[route101]

It is covered by the East Dayrider Gold (£15 for an Adult).

I expect the single fare between Oxford and Bedford is lower than £15.

 

[Ianno87]

Not the near-daily gridlock on weekdays that was the case pre-Covid. City traffic is very quiet in the mornings, the ring roads are busier getting to the Biomedical Campus etc.

Update on this. Traffic now pretty consistently horrendous (but immensely satisfying to outcycle the same queuing vehicles every single day).

I expect the single fare between Oxford and Bedford is lower than £15.

£11.

 

[TheWalrus]

It is covered by the East Dayrider Gold (£15 for an Adult).

Gets you on Stagecoach West and Oxfordshire services too ☺️

 

[GusB]

While I remember, I spotted this bit of news earlier this week:

Stagecoach East’s X5 coach service to go double-deck

The X5 coach service between Bedford and Oxford is to undergo a second major change in the space of 11 months, with the current Plaxton Elite coaches being replaced by newer Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro400MMC [...]

cbwmagazine.com

The X5 coach service between Bedford and Oxford is to undergo a second major change in the space of 11 months, with the current Plaxton Elite coaches being replaced by newer Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro400MMC double-deckers. Originally introduced in the late 1990s, the X5 service provided a through service from Cambridge to Oxford and has been popular with tourists in the decades that followed but changed on 30 August 2020 when the direct route was revised.

In conjunction with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, the old X5 route was be split into two parts, with the X5 continuing to operate between Bedford to Oxford and the 905 running via a new route of Bedford to Cambridge via Roxton, Eaton Socon, St Neots, Cambourne, Cambridge Regional College and Cambridge Science Park.

Stagecoach advised its customers that “over the next few weeks, we will be introducing a fleet of newly painted, amber coloured double-deck vehicles to the X5 route. Introducing double deck vehicles will help to improve the reliability of the service and minimise disruption. You’ll still be able to travel in comfort, as the double deck vehicles will have free WiFi, USB charging points, leather seats and luggage racks.”

This is not the first time that Stagecoach has considered using double-deckers on this route, in 2008 Alexander RL-bodied Volvo Olympian 16209, R34 TAC, was down-seated and fitted with luggage racks for a trial. However, it was deemed unsuitable in operation between Cambridge and Oxford, so batch of new Plaxton Panthers were ordered instead. The current split service arrangement means passengers now have to break their journey at Bedford if travelling onwards.

Ten ADL Enviro400MMCs (10872-81) from Peterborough have transferred to Bedford depot along with former Cambridge Park & Ride 10803 for the service.

This is surely a sign that things are picking up if they need the extra capacity.

 

[markymark2000]

While I remember, I spotted this bit of news earlier this week:

Stagecoach East’s X5 coach service to go double-deck

The X5 coach service between Bedford and Oxford is to undergo a second major change in the space of 11 months, with the current Plaxton Elite coaches being replaced by newer Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro400MMC [...]

cbwmagazine.com

This is surely a sign that things are picking up if they need the extra capacity.

Or a sign they are further downgrading the route from a coach route to become more of a local stopping bus.

 

[GusB]

Or a sign they are further downgrading the route from a coach route to become more of a local stopping bus.

Well, quite - that's certainly another way of looking at it!

 

[Ianno87]

Or a sign they are further downgrading the route from a coach route to become more of a local stopping bus.

Which is basically how it is used anyway.

End to end traffic is pretty limited, and what there is is very concentrated into certain periods (e.g. Friday and Sunday evenings)

 

[markymark2000]

Which is basically how it is used anyway.

End to end traffic is pretty limited, and what there is is very concentrated into certain periods (e.g. Friday and Sunday evenings)

I wonder if they'd get more people trying to compete with NatEx doing Oxford to Luton Airport via Milton Keynes (replacing the 99) and Cambridge to Milton Keynes making that be the connection point. Can't see many people going 'through' MKC.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I wonder if they'd get more people trying to compete with NatEx doing Oxford to Luton Airport via Milton Keynes (replacing the 99) and Cambridge to Milton Keynes making that be the connection point. Can't see many people going 'through' MKC.

The reason for Bedford is partly operational convenience - that is the depot that operates it.

 

[cnjb8]

Or a sign they are further downgrading the route from a coach route to become more of a local stopping bus.

Well, quite - that's certainly another way of looking at it!

The reason for Bedford is partly operational convenience - that is the depot that operates it.

Apparently because of reliability too, a few of the Elites have gone to South West to replace some of the older Plaxtons on the Falcon service

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

They say 'improve reliability'. I'm guessing the 64-plate Volvo / Plaxtons previously on this route weren't that reliable. Plus the E400 MMC's have much better access for the disabled and wheelchair passengers.

Personally, Scania E400 MMC's would have been a better choice but I guess the ADL ones perform fine on this route to and from Oxford and Bedford.

 

[Mwanesh]

Between Bedford and Cambridge its a local service so makes sense to use deckers with extra capacity.

 

[Ianno87]

Between Bedford and Cambridge its a local service so makes sense to use deckers with extra capacity.

Pre-Covid, Coaches (on then the X5) bound for Cambridge routinely had to leave passengers behind in St Neots in the morning.

Vice-versa from Cambridge in the evening.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It sat at Bedford for 20 minutes anyway during which the few through passengers would tend to get off for a walk and the loo, so that they then got back on a different bus is not disastrous.

Add to that that East West Rail will kill the western part stone dead within a few years, but EWR to Cambridge will be many years hence. So splitting it is preparing for eventual withdrawal, though I'd not be surprised if some sort of Buckingham-Bicester service remained. (MK to Buckingham has the Arriva X60 and isn't itself a big flow).

 

[Ianno87]

It sat at Bedford for 20 minutes anyway during which the few through passengers would tend to get off for a walk and the loo, so that they then got back on a different bus is not disastrous.

Add to that that East West Rail will kill the western part stone dead within a few years, but EWR to Cambridge will be many years hence. So splitting it is preparing for eventual withdrawal, though I'd not be surprised if some sort of Buckingham-Bicester service remained. (MK to Buckingham has the Arriva X60 and isn't itself a big flow).

A logical end state would be (eventually) a Cambridge-MK service - I can still see Bedford-MK being retained in order to get to MK Shopping Centre without the large hoof up Midsummer Boulevard from MK Central.

 

[JonathanH]

So splitting it is preparing for eventual withdrawal, though I'd not be surprised if some sort of Buckingham-Bicester service remained. (MK to Buckingham has the Arriva X60 and isn't itself a big flow).

...and similarly not be surprised if there continued to be a Bicester to Oxford service (not X5) given the frequency of the existing S5 route.

 

[Bletchleyite]

...and similarly not be surprised if there continued to be a Bicester to Oxford service (not X5) given the frequency of the existing S5 route.

I would expect the existing S5 to remain, yes, as there is already a rail service and it is viable with one due to the very high demand on that corridor (Bicester being a more affordable place to live if you work in Oxford).

A logical end state would be (eventually) a Cambridge-MK service - I can still see Bedford-MK being retained in order to get to MK Shopping Centre without the large hoof up Midsummer Boulevard from MK Central.

Yes, possibly so. Also EWR doesn't intend to run a service into MKC from the east as things stand. There is I think also the Uno Bedford-MK via Cranfield service.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

It is covered by the East Dayrider Gold (£15 for an Adult).

And as a result of me being a student, I only pay £11!

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

...and similarly not be surprised if there continued to be a Bicester to Oxford service (not X5) given the frequency of the existing S5 route.

I'm sure there will be, given the massive growth zoned for Bicester. Purists could advocate a feeder service from the outlying areas, then a train to Oxford before getting a bus from the slightly peripheral train station to get into the centre. Three stages, two changes and no time saving....Not exactly attractive.

The reality is that there will be change and the rail line will take the longer journeys from Bedford and MK into Oxford. You might see the X5 survive but subsumed into a normal stopping service from MK to Oxford and integrated as part of the S5.

 

[route101]

I used the X5 yesterday between Oxford and Bedford, a 64 plate elite coach. Half of the other buses on the X5 were E400mmcs.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I used the X5 yesterday between Oxford and Bedford, a 64 plate elite coach. Half of the other buses on the X5 were E400mmcs.

Got to remember that the last set of coaches on the X5 were replaced after 6 years. These are already older and have done a good few miles so reliability will also start to be an issue.

 

[A0wen]

Add to that that East West Rail will kill the western part stone dead within a few years, but EWR to Cambridge will be many years hence. So splitting it is preparing for eventual withdrawal, though I'd not be surprised if some sort of Buckingham-Bicester service remained. (MK to Buckingham has the Arriva X60 and isn't itself a big flow).

Except the bus serves Buckingham, which the train won't be able to along with the shopping area of MK and Coachway.