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Stagecoach East (Bedford, Cambridge, Huntingdon and Peterborough)

E

EE59710

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West Northants Councillor Stephen Clarke has posted on his Facebook page that Grant Palmer are taking over the 41 Bedford to Northampton wef 1st March 2026.
There is a link to GP's website for further information but the last time I looked there was nothing about the 41 there.

"NEW OPERATOR FOR 41 BUS SERVICE
Grant Palmer will be taking over the 41 Bus Service on 1 March 2026 from Stagecoach and WNC officers have engaged with the new operator. A meeting is scheduled to take place with them shortly to enable a smooth transition. WNC, Milton Keynes and Central Beds have agreed to jointly invest money into marketing activity with the new operator. The route registration (see below) shows no material change in the WNC area, but there are changes at the Bedford end of the route.
https://www.grantpalmer.com/ "
 
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RailUK Forums

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Magdalia

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Further strikes in Cambridge have been called off see here:

www.bbc.co.uk

Further bus strikes in Cambridge called off, union confirms

Stagecoach East says it will "offer all the essential services" for passengers.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Bus strikes that would have seen drivers and engineers in Cambridge walk out again have been cancelled.

Staff at Stagecoach East took industrial action over Christmas and last month in a dispute over pay.

Members of Unite the Union were expected to strike again this month, but the union has confirmed the action has been cancelled.
Click to expand...
 
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Edvid

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Grant Palmer to take over service 41 | Grant Palmer

www.grantpalmer.com www.grantpalmer.com

Summary of changes to route 41 - services to/from Northampton will skip Stagsden, with only the 'shorts' (themselves withdrawn from Turvey) calling there. First/last buses will run later/earlier respectively and the Saturday afternoon extras will no longer run.
 
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citybus2500

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Edvid said:
The MK1 is unable to use the Luton guided busway "until further notice". Any ideas why?
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They don't mention why in the announcment.

Given the general performance of Bedford depot and their general attitude to operating the MK1, I would suggest it falls into the "it's too difficult / can't be bothered" category.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

citybus2500 said:
They don't mention why in the announcment.

Given the general performance of Bedford depot and their general attitude to operating the MK1, I would suggest it falls into the "it's too difficult / can't be bothered" category.
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And "oh what a surprise" said no-one, they haven't updated their BODS data to reflect this stop is no longer served.

Wouldn't it be nice if a half decent operator took over the MK1, the Luton-Milton Keynes bit at least.
 
Last edited:
markymark2000

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citybus2500 said:
And "oh what a surprise" said no-one, they haven't updated their BODS data to reflect this stop is no longer served.
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BODS is meant to reflect the registration and as as far as I can see, they have reregistered the change and so unless the registration is stuck in the traffic commissioners processing queue (which is completely plausible), BODS is kind of correct.
 
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Dwarfer1979

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citybus2500 said:
They don't mention why in the announcment.

Given the general performance of Bedford depot and their general attitude to operating the MK1, I would suggest it falls into the "it's too difficult / can't be bothered" category.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==


And "oh what a surprise" said no-one, they haven't updated their BODS data to reflect this stop is no longer served.

Wouldn't it be nice if a half decent operator took over the MK1, the Luton-Milton Keynes bit at least.
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I believe Stagecoach are back on the Busway this week. It was always a temporary diversion, as I understand, due to a specific issue arising that meant the council requested they not use the Busway until they could be sure it would not occur again and such assurances have been made that measures have been taken to do so.
 
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citybus2500

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Dwarfer1979 said:
I believe Stagecoach are back on the Busway this week. It was always a temporary diversion, as I understand, due to a specific issue arising that meant the council requested they not use the Busway until they could be sure it would not occur again and such assurances have been made that measures have been taken to do so.
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So a Stagecoach specific issue (1 bph in each direction) and not Arriva (16bph in each direction), Centrebus (3bph in each direction) or Grant Palmer (5bph in each direction).

What have they done, or not done? Speeding? Losing guidewheels?
 
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Dwarfer1979

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citybus2500 said:
So a Stagecoach specific issue (1 bph in each direction) and not Arriva (16bph in each direction), Centrebus (3bph in each direction) or Grant Palmer (5bph in each direction).

What have they done, or not done? Speeding? Losing guidewheels?
Click to expand...
I'm not privy to exactly the details of the issue but what I understand was it was a minor matter, possibly even a single incident, of a bus with a damaged guidewheel on the busway (something that I understand all the other operators did suffer from in the early days as drivers got used to driving buses with guidewheels on normal roads and so needing to take more care in their interaction with general pavements), possibly a specific concern with Stagecoach as their buses & drivers spend a substantially lower proportion of their time on the busway so there is more opportunity to incur such damage and less opportunity to notice if it has happened (the curbs at some stops in Dunstable Town Centre for instance look perfect for drivers to use the guidewheels to "dock" against them so you would notice if there is damage then). I assume the council just wanted to clarify procedures for this, something that was probably established with the other operators in the early days as they suffered the same then.

Haywain said:
Not today.
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I have seen a notification that they have been given permission to return to the busway that went out on Friday, it didn't have a date so I assumed that was an immediate return, but possibly there is a planned delay to that process but it still indicates that it was not planned nor intended to last for a specific period of time so the BODs criticisms of not being updated may have been unfair in this specific instance.
 
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citybus2500

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Dwarfer1979 said:
I'm not privy to exactly the details of the issue but what I understand was it was a minor matter, possibly even a single incident, of a bus with a damaged guidewheel on the busway (something that I understand all the other operators did suffer from in the early days as drivers got used to driving buses with guidewheels on normal roads and so needing to take more care in their interaction with general pavements), possibly a specific concern with Stagecoach as their buses & drivers spend a substantially lower proportion of their time on the busway so there is more opportunity to incur such damage and less opportunity to notice if it has happened (the curbs at some stops in Dunstable Town Centre for instance look perfect for drivers to use the guidewheels to "dock" against them so you would notice if there is damage then). I assume the council just wanted to clarify procedures for this, something that was probably established with the other operators in the early days as they suffered the same then.


I have seen a notification that they have been given permission to return to the busway that went out on Friday, it didn't have a date so I assumed that was an immediate return, but possibly there is a planned delay to that process but it still indicates that it was not planned nor intended to last for a specific period of time so the BODs criticisms of not being updated may have been unfair in this specific instance.
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A Scania was noted in Luton on the first day of the ban with only one guide wheel . . . .

And no, the criticism of not updating BODS data is not at all unfair. The service has changed and the public are being misled. Two weeks (and counting) is a long time, whether planned or not.
 
markymark2000

markymark2000

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citybus2500 said:
And no, the criticism of not updating BODS data is not at all unfair. The service has changed and the public are being misled. Two weeks (and counting) is a long time, whether planned or not.
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It is unfair when there was no legal obligation for them to update the data for the temporary diversion.

The only operators in the UK that I have seen updating any kind of open data for short term diversions, is Newport Bus and Cardiff Bus (and even they can vary depending on how much notice is given and the scale of the disruption. Effort vs reward sort of thing). Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe a single operator has uploaded revised data to BODS for an unplanned, short term, temporary diversion. And nor are they legally obligated to do so.
 
R

RT4038

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markymark2000 said:
It is unfair when there was no legal obligation for them to update the data for the temporary diversion.

The only operators in the UK that I have seen updating any kind of open data for short term diversions, is Newport Bus and Cardiff Bus (and even they can vary depending on how much notice is given and the scale of the disruption. Effort vs reward sort of thing). Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe a single operator has uploaded revised data to BODS for an unplanned, short term, temporary diversion. And nor are they legally obligated to do so.
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In my County of residence, operators only upload revised data for planned diversions of two weeks or more. There are several scenarios which are a problem:
  • Short term/unplanned works are a surprise to the public, who aren't informed via BODS
  • Short term/unplanned works which start off short term, but encounter an issue which takes them over two weeks, but no end date is known (may be a few more days, maybe a few more weeks - depends on all sorts of factors: weather, parts, contractors workload, unforeseen issues such as other complicating utilities etc)
  • Planned works that end early - sometimes two weeks! Not such a problem if it is just one road vs. another, but can be a big problem where a lengthy diversion has meant revised schedules for staff.
As you say - effort vs. reward. The system is not really set up for sudden changes, and the bus companies do not have the resource to keep on top of short term / unplanned changes.
 
markymark2000

markymark2000

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RT4038 said:
The system is not really set up for sudden changes, and the bus companies do not have the resource to keep on top of short term / unplanned changes.
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This is where the disruption data service would work well but most LAs don't want to join it or are dragging their heels on it. This then enables operators and local authorities to add disruption notices which flag up on online journey planners such as Citymapper and bustimes (rather than just notices in a bus stop, people can see the disruption online via their preferred journey planner and aren't forced to use the operators own systems).
Links to the create disruption data system incase of anyone looking: https://disruption-data.dft.gov.uk/
Link to browse current disruption notices and see which areas are already signed up: https://data.bus-data.dft.gov.uk/disruptions/organisations/
 
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Possiblythis

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Hello, just thought I'd ask if anyone has any photos of any Cambridge-area Stagecoach maps/timetables from the 00s/early 2010s, especially for any routes which no longer exist.

I've got a little project I'm beginning work on at the minute and anything you could send me would be a massive help! Thank you!
 
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RT4038

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markymark2000 said:
This is where the disruption data service would work well but most LAs don't want to join it or are dragging their heels on it.
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I should imagine that this is because Local Authorities are not legally required to 'join' it, are unwilling or unable to commit the resource (without someone paying for it) to operate such a facility, as against other priorities; plus do not have the legal powers to force operators to abide by the information contained in it,
 
markymark2000

markymark2000

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RT4038 said:
I should imagine that this is because Local Authorities are not legally required to 'join' it, are unwilling or unable to commit the resource (without someone paying for it) to operate such a facility, as against other priorities; plus do not have the legal powers to force operators to abide by the information contained in it,
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Quite probably yes.

There's a lot of potential reasons, but it all comes back to not wanting to join (whether because they aren't legally required to join, resource issues, not seeing the benefits) or dragging their heels on it (Previous meetings with BODS over this they said that a number of councils were on the test site and just dragging their heels on moving to the live system and using it properly).

When Traveline launches their new website in a few weeks, that will have disruptions coming in from the BODS disruption data service, and so hopefully that will nudge a few more LAs and operators to make use of the system.
 
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RT4038

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markymark2000 said:
Quite probably yes.

There's a lot of potential reasons, but it all comes back to not wanting to join (whether because they aren't legally required to join, resource issues, not seeing the benefits) or dragging their heels on it (Previous meetings with BODS over this they said that a number of councils were on the test site and just dragging their heels on moving to the live system and using it properly).

When Traveline launches their new website in a few weeks, that will have disruptions coming in from the BODS disruption data service, and so hopefully that will nudge a few more LAs and operators to make use of the system.
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Where is the data coming from for the BODS disruption data service? I am guessing that this not coming from Councils (apart from the raw information about road closures from Highways Depts., which has to be translated by someone as to how it may or may not effect bus routes?). I should think experimenting with a test site is a lot different to committing resource to take on the provision of live information and being responsible for it (which is not a statutory requirement for them) ?
 
markymark2000

markymark2000

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RT4038 said:
Where is the data coming from for the BODS disruption data service?
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LAs and operators adding notices via the system. There's a few videos on BODS Youtube about it.

RT4038 said:
I should think experimenting with a test site is a lot different to committing resource to take on the provision of live information and being responsible for it
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The 'test environment' as was explained by the previous BODS team are being no different to the live, except the test one of course isn't publishing the notices to the public.

It's a fault of the system though in my opinion making LAs the gatekeeper as I know a few operators are itching to get on the system but can't because their LA won't sign up (free sign up with no ongoing resource commitment). It should have be been done so that LAs can have an account if they wish to do, but an LA not signing up, shouldn't affect operators who want to use it and do great things.

And as I say, hopefully when Travelines new site launches, more LAs will sign up as they will see the data being used more, and then that will open the doors for operators to great things if they choose to do so.
 
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Edvid

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Major changes afoot for Bedford routes from 31 May. Timetables linked below:
www.stagecoachbus.com

East Bus Network

www.stagecoachbus.com www.stagecoachbus.com

Bedford Bus Network Updates – 31st May 2026​

We're improving Bedford's bus network from Sunday, 31st May 2026, following extensive research into how our customers travel, months of consultation with our drivers, the local authorities, and councillors.

Changes include extended routes, new services, improved frequencies, and timetable updates designed to build reliability across the region.

New & Extended Routes
  • Service 5 will be extended to Woodside Dover Crescent and Mark Rutherford School, taking over coverage previously provided by Service 7, which will be discontinued. This service will double the frequency for passengers boarding in Dover Crescent.
  • A new W2 service will replace Service 53, offering a fresh route to Wootton via Interchange Retail Park and Wixams.
  • A new SB12 service will also launch, connecting Stevenage Bus Station with Hudson Road.
More Frequent & Direct Services
  • Service 3 will now run direct, removing stops at the Hangers and Potters Way for a faster journey.
  • Service 4 will be extended to Elms Farm and Norse Road, running every 30 minutes and replacing Service 10, which is being discontinued due to low passenger numbers.
Timetable & Punctuality Improvements
  • Several services, including Services 1, 6, 8, and X5, will see minor timetable adjustments to improve punctuality.
  • Services 9, 9A, and 9B will now operate between Bedford and Shefford, each running every two hours. A new 9D service will connect Henlow, Hitchin, and Stevenage, with a bus every 30 minutes.
Evening Services

Services 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 will see buses run until 10:30 pm on weekdays.
Click to expand...

The Bedford Independent also lists many of the specific route changes in one of their three (to date) articles since Stagecoach went public.
www.bedfordindependent.co.uk

Bedford Borough Council breaks silence on bus service changes - Bedford Independent

Bedford Borough Council has responded to planned bus cuts, saying the changes are “deeply disappointing” as concerns grow across the...
www.bedfordindependent.co.uk www.bedfordindependent.co.uk

ServiceChangeKey details
1Timetable changeMinor changes, last bus 10.30pm
2WNew serviceReplaces Service 53, serving Wootton via Interchange Retail Park and Wixams
3Route changeWill run direct, no longer serving The Hangers or Potters Way
4ExtendedExtended to Elms Farm and Norse Road, every 30 minutes, replaces Service 10, last bus 10.30pm
4 / MK1Stand changeWill swap stands at Bedford Bus Station
5ExtendedExtended to Woodside Dover Crescent and Mark Rutherford School, no longer serves Elms Farm, last bus 10.30pm
6Timetable changeWill serve Milton Keynes distribution centres and Luton Hatters Way Retail Park, with minor timetable changes
7WithdrawnDiscontinued, areas now served by Service 5
8Timetable changeMinor changes for punctuality, last bus 10.30pm
9 / 9A / 9BRoute standardisedSame route between Bedford and Shefford, each running every two hours
10WithdrawnDiscontinued due to low passenger numbers
20ReducedOff-peak trips ended
28Timetable changeMinor running time changes
53WithdrawnReplaced by new Service 2W
905Timetable changeAdjusted due to roadworks, new stop at Eaton Socon, St Mary’s Church
MK1Route changeWill serve Milton Keynes distribution centres and Luton Hatters Way Retail Park, minor timetable changes
X5Timetable changeMinor changes to some trips
Click to expand...
 
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Richardr

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9 / 9A / 9B is a service I often use between Bedford and Shefford. Unless I've misunderstood, as I read the above it is not standardized nor improved, but reduced from half hourly to hourly. Next place, Clifton, reads as if it is now just every two hours.
 
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citybus2500

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Following another incident, where a driver took the guidewheel and arm off a bus, Stagecoach have once again been banned from using the Luton & Dunstable Busway.

Stagecoach have put a non-priority service update on their website with an end date of 29th August, but the text says until further notice. With Clifton Road stop being unavailable to them, they suggest using the "travel lodge" stop, which is further away than the Hatters Way one.

BODS data appears to have been updated, something they didn't do last time and was defended quite forcefully in some quarters.
 
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Edvid

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Fare changes on 1 September include the following:

• No fare cap fares increase. This includes group tickets.

• Fewer single fares below £3

• A simplified fare zone structure with town zones for Bedford; Cambridge; Peterborough; Fenland and Hertfordshire as well as Megarider Plus Zones for Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire and for East.* [Town zones at St Neots, March and Haverhill will be removed]

*East zone tickets only available as an Annual Student Ticket
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More details in the fares booklet.

Will Plus zone tickets remain valid on the 905 (Beds / Cambs) and X5 (Beds)? I can't tell.

citybus2500 said:
Following another incident, where a driver took the guidewheel and arm off a bus, Stagecoach have once again been banned from using the Luton & Dunstable Busway.
Click to expand...
Oops.

Guessing it wasn't the drivers on my MK1 rides the other week, they both took the trap entries very carefully.
 
markymark2000

markymark2000

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citybus2500 said:
BODS data appears to have been updated, something they didn't do last time and was defended quite forcefully in some quarters.
Click to expand...
The Clifton Road stop is still on BODS in both directions. That is for both the current timetable, and timetable which has the start date of 30th August. The timetables starting 30th August were last modified on 6th August.
 
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