The last bus to Wootton

The last bus to Wootton will run on August 20. After that you can only get there from Cranfield by taking a bus to Bedford and out again.

But don’t try it on a Sunday as Bedford services in future will only run Monday to Saturday.

There has been no warning of the shock changes. Stagecoach is replacing the V1 (Monday to Saturday) and V2 (Sunday) services with two new services, 52 and 53.

The 52 will run hourly from Bedford via Kempston to Marston Moretaine and Cranfield between 06.30 and 18.30 on Monday to Saturdays only. The 53 will run from Bedford, via Hillgrounds and Kempston to Wootton every 30 minutes between 06.45 and 18.45 from Monday to Saturdays. There is an additional departure Monday to Friday at 06.15.  There will also be an hourly Sunday service from 08.45 until 16.45

This means that there is no longer a direct bus link between Cranfield and Wootton at any time.  Students whose timetable or after-school activities make it impossible to use the standard school buses will be hit. They will have to rely on the Mumndad Transport Company – if available.

Cranfield Parish Council and Cranfield University fought a joint campaign to save Sunday buses to Bedford, in April. But the reprieve was only temporary.  They are jointly contributing part of the cost of the Milton Keynes to Cranfield evening services for a temporary period. They will then talk to Milton Keynes council about finding a long-term solution from April onwards, next year. Discussions will be held in September.

Two years ago, the village and Wharley End lost evening services to and from Bedford. As the village continues to grow its transport infrastructure is threatened.  The new services separate a route that can be supported on a Sunday by Bedford Borough from one that will receive no contribution from Central Bedfordshire.

New timetables can be found at http://www.stagecoachbus.com/PdfUploads/Timetable_13908_Venus%20V1.pdf

and http://www.stagecoachbus.com/PdfUploads/Timetable_13909_Venus%20V1.pdf

If these changes will affect you in any way, you are welcome to contact me tel 01234 757689 email broadgreen68@btinternet.com or contact Cranfield Express at letters@cranfieldexpress.co.uk with comments.

A Stagecoach bus at the Wharley End 'terminus'

Bus seminar

I went to the Central Beds bus seminar this afternoon, at the Rufus centre. It is clear that further public transport services face the axe but we were subjected to a lecture about choosing between greening society, reducing social isolation, helping economic development or helping the most disadvantaged as criteria for subsidising buses. The facilitator then insisted we take a vote about which was most important and the least important and carefully recorded the results. To every challenging quesion he replied 'Will you write that down?' (on a post-it note). He actually came across as a rather ineffectual woodwork teacher struggling to control the boys during the last class of Friday afternoon. But it was utterly pointless in getting to grips with the threat to our bus services.