Joshua_Harman
Member
Beds Plus ticket will still be valid on the whole of the MK1 route including to and from MK there are no plans to change this and it will still remain the same, it will still be only the X5 that’s excluded
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Stagecoach East (Bedford, Cambridge, Huntingdon and Peterborough)
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MasterSpenny
Member
Stagecoach East has repainted a member of the fleet to promote wellbeing, as seen on Route One (not sure of the fleet number for this bus, but looks like a good old Dennis Dart)
www.route-one.net
Stagecoach East wellbeing bus hits the road - routeone
Stagecoach East has put a Wellbeing on Wheels on the road in Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire to promote cancer awareness among the public.
www.route-one.net
David Goddard
Established Member
Its 34827. A United Counties Dart from new
higthomas
Member
- Joined
- 27 Nov 2012
- Messages
- 1,132
They seem to have put out their Christmas information in https://www.stagecoachbus.com/servi...rticle?SituationId=ID-30/11/2023-09:34:37:315 (and similar in Bedford) but it seems somewhat useless, only including Christmas eve last bus times. It doesn't say anything about all the other days.
David Goddard
Established Member
nor does it include all routes (such as the 9 to Ely and Littleport)They seem to have put out their Christmas information in https://www.stagecoachbus.com/servi...rticle?SituationId=ID-30/11/2023-09:34:37:315 (and similar in Bedford) but it seems somewhat useless, only including Christmas eve last bus times. It doesn't say anything about all the other days.
northern506
Member
Is that not because it doesn't operate on a Sunday?
RacsoMoquette
Member
As a local, allocations on longer distance routes out of Cambridge Drummer Street seem to be improving, with all of the ex Colour branded P&R Enviro 400MMCs refurbished in to the new beachball, aiding a common user pool of vehicles. Similarly, the AE10 XXX Enviro400s have gained the new local livery, and I have also noticed some interesting cascades, with original Cambridge Enviro400s being sent to either Peterborough or Bedfordshire and then being returned back to Cambridge after being gone for just over eight years. The cascade of the Stagecoach Gold spec Enviro400 Scanias to Northamptonshire has also improved allocations on the 13 and X13 routes in particular, as there were only ten in the fleet, and often that was not enough to operate said route. I also can not understand why they were repeatedly allocated on Citi branded routes in Cambridge such as the 1, 2 or 3 as their interiors were completely unsuitable for said routes. It is also good to see that the ex Busway-branded Enviro400 Scanias are being progressively repainted in to the new Beachball, as having Busway-branded buses on routes other than the latter; it sure does confuse customers in my experience.
It is also rather odd that they cascaded their ex London LX09 XXX Scania Omnicitys to Canterbury as after that cascade. I did notice extremely poor misallocations, possibly due to a shortage of vehicles, as those Omnicitys would have been perfect for the Central Cambridge routes running alongside the existing Enviro400s, while the higher spec vehicles with E leather seating, such as the Enviro400 Scanias could have been kept on longer distance routes out of Central Cambridge. Nonetheless, I think that the SN66 XXX Enviro400MMCs are versatile buses, due to their high backed E leather seating, and are suitable for either long distance or short distance routes in the Cambridge Area.
I have also recently seen that the two LF69 XXX ADL Enviro400City BYD EVs originally set to be used on the Citi 6 Cambridge-Oakington are returning to the route, after a long period just working the P&Rs prior to the delivery of the MCV Volvo BZLs. Two years ago I was chatting to a driver, who said that the six was unsuitable due to the batteries going flat too early, and duty cycles became incomplete, while soon after the usual duo of AE13 XXX returned to the route. So it does confuse me as to why the electrics have resumed operation. Perhaps they received a battery modification or something similar.
I have also noticed that route eighteen Cambridge Drummer Street to St Neots via Grantchester, Caxton and Comberton has improved its reliability due to the ex Universal route Volvo B8RLE Wright Eclipse 2 vehicles being rebranded and are now working routes such as the X3,X2 and eighteen which has replaced Whippets motley crew of junk such as falling apart ex Faresaver Alexander Dennis ALX400 bodied Dennis Tridents, ex UNO Scania Omnidekka ( both withdrawn) and three ex RATP London Scania Omnicitys which one has received a royal blue livery however without branding, with one older Scania Omnicity receiving full livery for route X2. With the oldest now withdrawn and cascades from the Universal route, we should start seeing improved reliability. The Mellor Sigma 12s certainly look the part and are hopefully rejuvenating the quality of the Universal Route. On the brighter side Stephensons of Essex took over routes eleven and twelve (Drummer Street to Newmarket) from Stagecoach East, and have been operating the service impeccably, with mostly ADL Enviro400 Scanias and ADL Enviro200s with the occasional Omidekka. Luckily their severe driver shortage is not currently affecting this route, and let us hope it stays that way. I enjoy seeing how local independents manage and serve trunk routes that larger operators such as Stagecoach abolished.
It is also rather odd that they cascaded their ex London LX09 XXX Scania Omnicitys to Canterbury as after that cascade. I did notice extremely poor misallocations, possibly due to a shortage of vehicles, as those Omnicitys would have been perfect for the Central Cambridge routes running alongside the existing Enviro400s, while the higher spec vehicles with E leather seating, such as the Enviro400 Scanias could have been kept on longer distance routes out of Central Cambridge. Nonetheless, I think that the SN66 XXX Enviro400MMCs are versatile buses, due to their high backed E leather seating, and are suitable for either long distance or short distance routes in the Cambridge Area.
I have also recently seen that the two LF69 XXX ADL Enviro400City BYD EVs originally set to be used on the Citi 6 Cambridge-Oakington are returning to the route, after a long period just working the P&Rs prior to the delivery of the MCV Volvo BZLs. Two years ago I was chatting to a driver, who said that the six was unsuitable due to the batteries going flat too early, and duty cycles became incomplete, while soon after the usual duo of AE13 XXX returned to the route. So it does confuse me as to why the electrics have resumed operation. Perhaps they received a battery modification or something similar.
I have also noticed that route eighteen Cambridge Drummer Street to St Neots via Grantchester, Caxton and Comberton has improved its reliability due to the ex Universal route Volvo B8RLE Wright Eclipse 2 vehicles being rebranded and are now working routes such as the X3,X2 and eighteen which has replaced Whippets motley crew of junk such as falling apart ex Faresaver Alexander Dennis ALX400 bodied Dennis Tridents, ex UNO Scania Omnidekka ( both withdrawn) and three ex RATP London Scania Omnicitys which one has received a royal blue livery however without branding, with one older Scania Omnicity receiving full livery for route X2. With the oldest now withdrawn and cascades from the Universal route, we should start seeing improved reliability. The Mellor Sigma 12s certainly look the part and are hopefully rejuvenating the quality of the Universal Route. On the brighter side Stephensons of Essex took over routes eleven and twelve (Drummer Street to Newmarket) from Stagecoach East, and have been operating the service impeccably, with mostly ADL Enviro400 Scanias and ADL Enviro200s with the occasional Omidekka. Luckily their severe driver shortage is not currently affecting this route, and let us hope it stays that way. I enjoy seeing how local independents manage and serve trunk routes that larger operators such as Stagecoach abolished.
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CBlue
Member
The AE10XXX E400s may have new coats of paint but otherwise most are in rather poor condition internally with threadbare seats.
The Gold spec E400 Scanias started appearing on the town routes rather than the 13 simply as they had started getting very unreliable. That batch had never seemed particularly well put together and suffered a lot of bodywork issues - was best to keep them in and around Cambridge where replacement with a spare bus from the depot was far easier, instead of at outstations. The E400MMC's are a welcome upgrade and are definitely better to travel on.
Those omnicities were knackered! Hard seats and a general ambience of the bus trying to fall apart around you. They definitely weren't popular and suffered plenty of reliability issues alongside a thirst for fuel, so when the service cuts last year happened and left a fleet surplus they were among the first to go.
There wasn't any need to keep higher spec vehicles for longer distance routes as there are hardly any of those services left. Allocations at Cambridge depot haven't meant much for the past few years anyway.
84033 appears to have been working one duty that has mornings and afternoons on the 6, working 25s during the day. Presumably after scheduling changes it's been worked out what they can complete a full day's work on, although last week both of the E400 EV's were back on P&R duties alongside the BZLs.
RacsoMoquette
Member
Looking back, I can agree how poor those Omnicities were to travel on, especially due to their horrendous idling vibrations. If I remember correctly, locals did not want ex London cast-offs as said buses had filthy Euro five engines. It is interesting that the Gold spec Enviro400 Scanias were poorly built. As a user of the thirteen for many years, I have never experienced a breakdown. Or was it just poor build quality?
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The Gold spec Enviro400 Scanias built for the 13 seem to fail most days on the X46 / X47 that Northampton allocate them to so interesting - still with their brilliant but non compliant branding. Northampton depot love to give town services coach seated buses and put on inter urban services with low backed seated buses.
The Scania based Enviro400s give much better ride quality compared to the complete Enviro 400s. Gold seats are much more comfortable than than the ex P&R semi high back seats.
The Scania based Enviro400s give much better ride quality compared to the complete Enviro 400s. Gold seats are much more comfortable than than the ex P&R semi high back seats.
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Changes to come on 18 February:
* The 2 (Bedford - Flitwick) will be withdrawn, so passengers will have to use the Grant Palmer 42.
* Mon-Sat, the 8 (Bedford - Great Denham) will be extended to Bedford Hospital and the frequency will rise from 50 to 45 minutes. The Mon-Fri daily 8X will be withdrawn.
* The Cambridge end of the 905 (to/from Bedford) will move from Parkside to Drummer Street.
* MK1 (Bedford - Milton Keynes, via Luton Airport) journey times will be adjusted for the Clophill roundabout roadworks.
* Mon-Fri, additional services on the X5 (Bedford - Oxford) will translate to a half-hourly frequency for longer.
Regarding the 9s in more detail:
* The 9 (Bedford - Shortstown) will fall from half-hourly to hourly on Saturdays.
* The 9A/B/C (Bedford - Hitchin) will be extended to Stevenage. The combined 9A/B Saturday frequency will also fall from half-hourly to hourly.
* Mon-Fri, the 9D (Bedford - Stevenage) will be introduced for the earliest/latest journeys from/to Bedford respectively, taking a more direct route between Shefford and Hitchin.
The above also means that Hitchin and Stevenage will form a Hertfordshire Town Zone, and the Bedfordshire Plus Zone will expand accordingly.
PDF booklet
www.stagecoachbus.com
* The 2 (Bedford - Flitwick) will be withdrawn, so passengers will have to use the Grant Palmer 42.
* Mon-Sat, the 8 (Bedford - Great Denham) will be extended to Bedford Hospital and the frequency will rise from 50 to 45 minutes. The Mon-Fri daily 8X will be withdrawn.
* The Cambridge end of the 905 (to/from Bedford) will move from Parkside to Drummer Street.
* MK1 (Bedford - Milton Keynes, via Luton Airport) journey times will be adjusted for the Clophill roundabout roadworks.
* Mon-Fri, additional services on the X5 (Bedford - Oxford) will translate to a half-hourly frequency for longer.
Regarding the 9s in more detail:
* The 9 (Bedford - Shortstown) will fall from half-hourly to hourly on Saturdays.
* The 9A/B/C (Bedford - Hitchin) will be extended to Stevenage. The combined 9A/B Saturday frequency will also fall from half-hourly to hourly.
* Mon-Fri, the 9D (Bedford - Stevenage) will be introduced for the earliest/latest journeys from/to Bedford respectively, taking a more direct route between Shefford and Hitchin.
The above also means that Hitchin and Stevenage will form a Hertfordshire Town Zone, and the Bedfordshire Plus Zone will expand accordingly.
PDF booklet
East Bus Network
www.stagecoachbus.com
markymark2000
On Moderation
Surely something better can be done with the MK1 than just giving it loads more time? Given the MK1 demand, couldn't Luton to Milton Keynes be moved to Northampton to link into the X6 and then Bedford run just Bedford - Luton Airport? That has to be better for passengers than disruption in Milton Keynes disrupting someone's local journey 2.5 hours down the route. The amount that they have invested into the MK1 just so that they can force this silly route to work, must be costing them more than it was before hand having drivers running to MK in shunt cars and having a reliable service?
Very interesting extension, it seems commercial too (no mention anywhere of BSIP funding being used) which makes it even more interesting. I hope that it works out well for them and that the competition does good things for Hitchin and Stevenage.
Silver Cobra
Member
Regarding the 9s in more detail:
* The 9 (Bedford - Shortstown) will fall from half-hourly to hourly on Saturdays.
* The 9A/B/C (Bedford - Hitchin) will be extended to Stevenage. The combined 9A/B Saturday frequency will also fall from half-hourly to hourly.
* Mon-Fri, the 9D (Bedford - Stevenage) will be introduced for the earliest/latest journeys from/to Bedford respectively, taking a more direct route between Shefford and Hitchin.
The above also means that Hitchin and Stevenage will form a Hertfordshire Town Zone, and the Bedfordshire Plus Zone will expand accordingly.
PDF booklet
East Bus Network
I had heard about this on BBC Three Counties Radio yesterday, but they didn't have any information on how this service would work. Thank you for posting this breakdown on the proposed service plan. The only slightly disappointing change here is the service reduction on Saturdays to hourly, but I guess if they feel patronage isn't high enough on Saturdays to maintain the current frequency, there's not much we can do. At least the weekday service will remain half hourly.
buscoaster
Member
Does anybody know what the route of the 9D will be?
RacsoMoquette
Member
I have been a relatively frequent traveller on Cambridge P&R Volvo BZL DD vehicles, and I have noticed even from their introduction in May 2023, that quality control seems to have been an issue upon production. Said buses have rattled awfully pretty much since their introduction, interior panels also horribly rattle and I have even started to see interior body corrosion and small areas of rust in the interior (Selected vehicles only). This is absolutely not what I expect from a batch that is not even a year old! It is simply shocking how abysmal MCVs engineering is when it comes to bodywork! I think that MCV currently puts an awful image on Volvo. I hope future Volvo/MCV produced batches do not suffer quality control issues akin to the Cambridge P&R fleet.
It's unlikely to make a material difference to either Hitchin or Stevenage.
Hitchin - Stevenage has never really managed to sustain anything more than a basic half-hourly service with some other bits and pieces - if you go back to London Country days the mainstay was the 300/303 with additional journeys covered either by a Green Line service or something via the villages. It does mean a few small places, such as Henlow and Shefford will now have a direct bus to Stevenage, rather than just Hitchin heading south, but whent the bus takes 30-40 minutes to get from Shefford to Hitchin and Stevenage is a further 20 minutes away (using the Arriva 100/101 for timings), it's going to be the best part of an hour to get from Shefford to Stevenage compared to the current position where there is an hourly bus between Shefford and Arlesey where there's a half-hourly train service which takes 11 minutes to get to Stevenage.
To use Shefford as an example if you take the current 8.32 9A it doesn't get you to Hitchin until 9.10 - add 20 mins to get to Stevenage and you'll arrive there at 9.32. However if you get off that bus in Arlesey at 8.48 walk 1 minute to the station and then board the 9.07 train you'll get to Stevenage at 9.14.
IMO the only bit of the link which has any value is that it serves Lister Hospital at Stevenage, but then again if you're in Shefford it's just as likely you'll be referred to Bedford General as Lister.
Silver Cobra
Member
As someone who lives in Shefford, I do understand what you are saying with regards to the viability of the service extension. Under normal circumstances using the existing combination of the 9A to Arlesey and Thameslink to Stevenage does make more sense with it being faster. However, with the current £2 cap on bus fares, the extra 20 minutes journey time may be worth it to save between £3.50 and £5.30 (dependent on time of travel and access to a railcard). Add in that on a day of poor weather, Arlesey doesn't have the most amount of shelter from said weather, so waiting up to 20 minutes on the platform in those conditions isn't great compared to staying on a warm and dry bus.
Funnily enough I am looking to give the service a try towards the end of March. I'm spending a long weekend up in Hull to visit a friend, and for my journey back I'm planning to use LNER from Leeds to Stevenage (I'll be spending a few hours in Leeds before heading back) to catch a 9A/B back to Shefford from there instead of my usual route of Leeds to Peterborough, Thameslink to Arlesey and the 9A back to Shefford.
**EDIT: Stagecoach East have now posted the provisional timetables for the updated services, which can be found here:
ServiceUpdatesArticle
www.stagecoachbus.com
While it is sad to see that the reduction of service to the 9/9A/9B on Saturdays is definitely confirmed, I am impressed to see that two more additional services both at the start and end of the day will be added on weekdays, with these being the 0415 and 0445 9D services towards Stevenage (the current 0455 9A also becoming the 0515 9D service) and 2000 and 2030 9D services towards Bedford (2025 and 2055 from Hitchin, to compare to the current timetable). This means that, for me, Shefford will now have a bus service from 0455 until 2110, which is the longest period of service on weekdays we've had since 2016.
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Mayoral board approves £11m bus package for Cambridgeshire
The Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) Board has approved a tripling of the mayoral precept to fund an £11m bus improvement package.
www.route-one.net
Hopefully this generates improvements to the bus network in Cambridge. The congestion is appalling sometimes, I was delayed ~30 mins recently.
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higthomas
Member
- Joined
- 27 Nov 2012
- Messages
- 1,132
Yeah, I think dealing with congestion is the thing which would actually help buses in Cambridge the most. I was on a bus that took 20 minutes to move 100m past the Catholic Church junction last week.
Sadly given the fate of the congestion charge I fear Cambridge politicians have lost their bottle, and this precept will end up being pissed up the wall on £120 per journey buses.
Traffic congestion in Cambridge isn't going away. This week's Cambridge Independent reported that applications to the County Council for roadworks have almost doubled compared to before the pandemic. Cambridge has almost no dual carriageway so that means lots of temporary traffic lights, and these are one of the major causes of congestion. The congestion is likely to get worse if there really is a major programme to repair potholes.
MasterSpenny
Member
Route One reports that Stagecoach East has plans to reopen the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway on the 30th of March 2024.
www.route-one.net
Stagecoach East welcomes planned Busway reopening
Stagecoach East has welcomed plans for the southern section of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway to be reopened on 30 March.
www.route-one.net
The latest year's accounts for Stagecoach East have appeared on the Companies House website - to the end of April '23 they made a loss of £1.3 million (2022: profit £1.8m) from revenues of £47.4 million (2022: £42.3m).
Various changes coming to Cambridgeshire and around in a few weeks time.
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/stagecoach-east-announces-timetable-shake-28795657
The changes can be seen here (pdf).
Most notable for myself, as an Ely resident, is the further cutting of the 9, down to just 3 buses each way a day! It is very sad to see how poorly this route has been treated over the years by Stagecoach, it isn't that long ago that it had a half-hourly service running into well into the evening, with a late 'last bus'.
Of course train services between Ely and Cambridge are frequent and fast, but given the rail stations are quite a long way away from the centre of either, it is hard to see that there isn't a market for a reasonable bus service between the two. Stagecoach can't seem to find it, however.
Particularly annoying given our council tax bills are about to arrive, with *tripled* from last year 'bus precept'.
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/stagecoach-east-announces-timetable-shake-28795657
The changes can be seen here (pdf).
Most notable for myself, as an Ely resident, is the further cutting of the 9, down to just 3 buses each way a day! It is very sad to see how poorly this route has been treated over the years by Stagecoach, it isn't that long ago that it had a half-hourly service running into well into the evening, with a late 'last bus'.
Of course train services between Ely and Cambridge are frequent and fast, but given the rail stations are quite a long way away from the centre of either, it is hard to see that there isn't a market for a reasonable bus service between the two. Stagecoach can't seem to find it, however.
Particularly annoying given our council tax bills are about to arrive, with *tripled* from last year 'bus precept'.
There is an update on the BBC website here:
Cambridgeshire guided busway to fully reopen with new fencing
A fence has been installed to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety after three busway deaths.
www.bbc.co.uk
Other news is the forthcoming closures in Milton Road Cambridge over the school Easter holidays see here:
Milton Road closures begin in Cambridge to improve safety
The Greater Cambridge Partnership apologises for any disruption cause by overnight road closures.
www.bbc.co.uk
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Two Mon-Fri services from Bedford (0645/0745, on the MK1*) have been altered to start at Luton Airport (0830/0940) today, which means there was a three-hour gap for those travelling from the Central Beds villages/towns to Luton at that time of day. I asked Stagecoach East about this and they say it is an "operational issue" in relation to the school holiday timetable (code for driver availability, I guess) they hope to resolve in time for tomorrow's services.
My mum regularly travels from Luton to Milton Keynes for shopping and has almost always taken the car there, usually with my dad (she occasionally used the VT99 rail-air coach link en-route to food exhibitions at the NEC years ago). I recently informed her of the whole £2/Older Persons' ENCTS/direct from Wigmore ASDA deal and she's using the MK1 today, but after waiting over an hour for the next service it may be a long time before she uses it again.
[* 0700/0805 during school holidays]
My mum regularly travels from Luton to Milton Keynes for shopping and has almost always taken the car there, usually with my dad (she occasionally used the VT99 rail-air coach link en-route to food exhibitions at the NEC years ago). I recently informed her of the whole £2/Older Persons' ENCTS/direct from Wigmore ASDA deal and she's using the MK1 today, but after waiting over an hour for the next service it may be a long time before she uses it again.
[* 0700/0805 during school holidays]
Rather than driver availability, it sounds like it might be a genuine operational issue where because the journeys operate at a different time in the school holidays, those journeys have, in error, not been included in a shift when compiling the duties.
If it was a driver availability issue, you’d expect most of the round trip to have been dropped, not just a quarter of it.
It should be noted that this has (unsurprisingly, given the timing) become one of the main issues in a set of local by-elections we're having here in the next few weeks, with the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems all promising to do 'something' about it.
The Tories (who run the district council) are pointing out that this is a failure of the Labour Mayor, tripling the bus precept at the exact same time that our bus services are cut. Which I can't argue with as an argument, given I made it myself above.
Labour (who have the mayor) are pointing out this means we need more local control of bus services (no doubt with the Mayor getting more say, as in say Manchester) as they don't have control over what Stagecoach choose to do with the route. Which is also a fair argument, Cambridge and Stagecoach have managed to mutually move into an effective monopoly over the last 20 years or so and that will be very hard to unpick. (It also explains why no-one around here believed the 'quid pro quo' offered by the useless GCP for the Cambnridge congestion charge of a *massively* improved local bus network, and so why in the end the case for the congestion charge fell apart).
The Lib Dems (who run the county council, along with a few from Labour and some independents) are simply saying it is 'important' to save it without explaining how.
In other words, everyones says they want to 'save' it, while clearly seeing the party political advantage in blaming the other parties for the issue. As such, I expect nothing at all to change, unfortunately. Having all the major parties involved in controlling different levels of the local government apparatus rarely seems to help around here, and we're very much in that place at the moment.
Meanwhile the bus service between Ely and Cambridge has withered away to effective non-existence, which is a really poor state of affairs.
Teds
Member
There is a tender out from the Mayor to provide an additional 3 round trips on the route. As yet, no other operator has registered the service in Notices and Proceedings so whether the additional services will run next Monday (15th April) is not clear.
Stagecoach helped to kill the route themselves when they took out Milton and Landbeach which should have improved the journey times had it not been for the never ending roadworks. The off-peak frequency was reduced to 2 hourly at the same time. The Ely outstation closed as well which significantly increased the dead mileage. I rarely use the route but I have travelled on it recently - the first time it was 40 minutes late, second 19 minutes late and the third time about 5 minutes late. On the last one, I had travelled from Cambridge to Ely and apart from one set of single line traffic lights, there were no other delays which suggests that the timings are too tight. This was on the 1435 journey from Cambridge on each occasion so not a peak hour service and the last also during the school holidays.
The change in the route gave Milton and Waterbeach a much improved service including a Sunday service so the changes were not all bad. It is a shame that it effectively killed such a long established route. I think it is inevitable that it will become a wholly tendered route and that would probably be better although most tendered routes seemed to be designed to provide a minimum service for customers who really can't travel any other way (infrequent and circuitous).
The politics of it is a mess. The local Tory district council are using it to score points. They just want to blame the Labour Mayor who has no control over a commercial service. They have no interest in buses for any other reason - at least at the moment although that was not always the case.