News Archive 2002

Changes to bus services in and around Peterborough during 2002 (working up the page). For older news see the Archive page.

Christmas and New Year holiday services

bullet There will be no buses running in Peterborough on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day.

bullet On December 24 Stagecoach will run a normal service, but the last evening departures from Queensgate will be at 2015. The last X4 will be the 2100, running to Kettering only.

bullet Stagecoach will be running a Saturday service on December 27, 28, 30 and 31, and a normal Sunday service on Dec. 29. On New Year's Eve the last departures from Queensgate will be at 2015 (last X4 at 2100 to Kettering).

bullet Delaine will be running a normal service (no service on December 25, 26 and January 1). However, on December 24 and 31 Peterborough - Stamford route 201 will run a Saturday service, and the Peterborough - Bourne services will finish early with last departures from Peterborough at 1700, 1730, 1800 and 1830. Last bus from Bourne will be the 1730. On Dec. 27 the last bus will leave Peterborough at 1830 (Bourne at 1730).

bullet Morleys will be running a normal timetable on Dec. 24, 27 - 31. On Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, there will be an additional journey from Whittlesey at 1945, returning from Peterborough at 2010.

bullet First Excel will run a Saturday service on Dec. 27 - 30. On Dec. 24 and 31 the last bus from Peterborough will be at 2055, running to Kings Lynn.

bullet All other operators are running a normal service on Dec. 24, 27 - 31, except that Newborough Coaches will not run on Saturday Dec. 28, and Rambler service 50 will cease early on Dec. 24 and 31, the last bus from Queensgate leaving at 1950. Arriva Fox County will run a Saturday service on New Year's Eve, finishing around 1700/1800 hours.

bullet No National Express services will run on Dec. 25, 26 or Jan. 1 except that a special service to London (service 848) will operate on Dec. 26 and Jan. 1 departing at 0925 and 1525, returning from Victoria Coach Station at 1230 and 1830.

24/12/02

Morley's 701

bullet Morley's introduced a new timetable from November 3. The revised Sunday service was added some weeks ago but I have only just been made aware of the new weekday timetable. The evening service now only runs on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

06/12/02

Queengate departure bays

bullet The list showing which routes depart from which bay at the bus station has now been updated to reflect recent changes.

30/11/02

New Sunday Services from November 3

bullet New and altered Sunday bus services (also some evening alterations) have been announced, to run from November 3. They will be operated on behalf of Peterborough City Council by Stagecoach in Peterborough (also Morley's on service 701).

bullet Service 19 (Werrington Centre - Queensgate) will gain a Sunday service, departing Werrington hourly 0915 - 1715 and Queensgate hourly 0945 - 1745. The normal route 19 will be followed, giving Lincoln Road Millfield (including the bus depot!) its first Sunday service for some years. The Lincoln Road area of Walton will also see a much improved Sunday service (it currently has four Delaine journeys), whilst much of Werrington will now have a half-hourly service during the day taking into account existing service 54, which is unaltered.

bullet New Sunday journeys on country routes are a rarity these days, but Thorney sees three journeys on route 36 (supplementing the X94) leaving Peterborough at 1015, 1415 and 1615, returning from Thorney School at 1048, 1448 and 1648. Crowland is another beneficiary, with journeys on route 37 from Crowland (Postland Road) at 0943, 1143, 1343 and 1543 (four minutes later from West Street) returning from Queensgate at 1115, 1315, 1515 and 1715. Eye, of course, will also be served by services 36 and 37. I believe these journeys will run for an experimental period of six months, so it is to be hoped that they will be well used in order to ensure their long-term survival.

bullet Morley's 701 to Whittlesey will be retimed and rerouted via Park Farm, serving Lawson Avenue and Park Farm Way. Unfortunately, the Sunday evening service will be withdrawn, meaning that the last bus from Peterborough will be at 1815 (previously 2245).

bullet Evening and Sunday service 2A will be renumbered 55 and will no longer serve North Bretton. Instead, it will give Netherton and Ravensthorpe a new service, being rerouted (like weekday service 3) via Thorpe Park Road, Audley Gate, Ledbury Road and Atherstone Avenue to Cranford Drive, then after Hampton Court via the Hartwell Way loop, continuing to Bretton Centre via Edith Cavell Hospital. Timings from Queensgate are unchanged, except that there will be no evening service on Sundays, the last departure from Queensgate being at 1745 (1815 from Bretton Centre). North Bretton will revert to having an hourly service evenings and Sundays on existing service 53, which is unchanged.

bullet New service 55 will also continue from Queensgate to Orton Centre via Hampton replacing evening and Sunday journeys on route 18. Unlike the Bretton part of service 55 it does run Sunday evenings; in fact the timetable is unchanged except that Serpentine Green Shopping Centre is not served on Sundays after 1700 hrs. Service 55 will give new cross-town links such as the Ortons to Edith Cavell Hospital, and Bretton to Serpentine Green.

bullet Delaine Buses will not be running the additional Sunday buses that they ran during the pre-Christmas period last year.

bullet The City Council has published a new timetable booklet covering Sunday services, dated 3rd November 2002 to 27th April 2003.

bullet All relevant destinations on this site have now been updated.

23/10/02, updated 12/11/02

Christmas Park and Ride - New Car Parks

bullet The Christmas Park and Ride service will once again run on Saturdays from October 26 to December 28. However, there are two new car parks this year. The Showground car park is replaced by one at the Lynch Wood Business Park (AMP car park number 5), and the parking formerly at Perkins will now be at Peterborough Regional College.

bullet Buses run for an extended period compared to last year, starting at about 0800 and finishing at about 1830. As before, fares are excellent value. Adults pay £1.00 which covers parking and the return bus fare; children under 16 travel free.

23/10/02

Temporary closure of Town Bridge

bullet The Town Bridge and Rivergate one-way system will be closed to southbound traffic from 2100 hrs on Saturday Oct. 19 until 0600 hours on Sunday Oct. 20. Bus services 18, 53, 54 and 701 leaving the city from 2045 hrs will be diverted via the Parkways.

18/10/02

First Eastern Counties X94

bullet News has only just reached me that First Eastern Counties changed their X94 timetable from September 1. Most daytime journeys (Mon-Sat) leave Queensgate 5 minutes earlier and there are other minor retimings. On Sundays the last Peterborough - Kings Lynn journey is retimed from 2110 to 2150. All relevant pages have been updated.

07/10/02

National Express Winter Timetable

bullet Express coach timings have been updated following the introduction of the new National Express timetable, valid from September 23 to April 6.

bullet Certain northbound journeys from London have been retimed - the 1400, 1600 and 1830 journeys from London to Peterborough on service 448 now leave 30 minutes earlier. This also means that the 1820 Peterborough to Lincoln service now leaves at 1750, and this journey no longer runs later on Saturdays and Sundays.

bullet The Cambridge - Liverpool service 350 journey is retimed 10-15 minutes earlier (now departing Peterborough 0910) and the return journey also runs 10 minutes earlier after Nottingham, now leaving Peterborough at 1945 for Cambridge.

01/10/02

43A retiming

bullet A retiming from September 2 affects one journey on Stagecoach service 43A - the 1543 from Peterborough now runs at 1503.

17/09/02

New late evening X4 journeys serving Oundle and beyond

bullet From September 2 there will be two additional evening journeys (Mondays to Saturdays) from Peterborough on Stagecoach service X4. The first leaves from the rail station at 2100 (2110 from Queensgate) and goes all the way to Northampton; the other leaves at 2325 (Queensgate 2330) and terminates at Kettering. In the other direction there are new journeys at 1845 and 2115 from Northampton to Peterborough, serving Oundle at 2023 and 2250.

bullet From the same date the rather unsalubrious bus station at Corby will be closed. Buses to Peterborough will serve Anne Street (stop F) whilst those from Peterborough will call at George Street (stop A).

bullet All relevant destinations on this site have now been updated (31/08/02).

26/08/02, updated 31/08/02

Delaine changes from August 27

bullet From August 27 there will be changes to peak-hour journeys on Delaine's Peterborough - Bourne service. The 0730 Bourne - Peterborough will run 5 minutes earlier as far as Market Deeping, and the 0745 will start from Morton at 0725 and run 5 minutes earlier from Bourne (on Saturdays the 0745 is retimed to 0800 starting from Morton at 0745). From Peterborough the 1740 (Mon-Fri) is retimed to 1745, the 1750 (Mon-Fri) is withdrawn, and the 1800 becomes a 102 journey via Deeping St James.

bullet On route 201 the 1710 Stamford to Peterborough journey will be withdrawn and the 1745 from Peterborough will run 5 minutes later.

bullet Pages on this site have now been updated. Full details of the changes, including pdf files of the new timetables, are also on the News page of the Delaine website.

16/08/02, updated 26/08/02

Nostalgia Feature on Fen Travel expanded

bullet It is now 10 years since Peterborough's 'bus war' when Fen Travel began to compete with Viscount. A couple of months ago, a draft version of a feature on this company was placed on the Nostalgia section of this site. After further research, I have now extended and completed this feature, and further photographs have been added from Dave Knott's extensive collection.

bullet This topic is now covered in some detail, and if you have previously read this feature and enjoyed it, I hope you will find time to have another look now it is complete.

28/07/02

New Leisure service for Flag Fen, Showcase Cinema and Ferry Meadows

bullet A new Peterborough City Council sponsored bus service started on Saturday July 20, linking Flag Fen and the Showcase Cinema with the Bus Station, continuing to Ferry Meadows. The new service 60, operated by Aardvark, also calls at Midgate, for the Cathedral. It runs on Sundays and bank holidays throughout the year, also on summer Saturdays (until October) and on Wednesdays during the school holidays.

bullet Despite a Council press release on Tuesday saying that timetables were available, the bus station and the tourist information centre had no knowledge of the new service, and neither did the library have any details! However, I have now managed to obtain timings through the Traveline service, and the full Service 60 timetable is now on line.

19/07/02, updated 21/07/02

Changes from June 10

bullet From Monday June 10, daytime journeys on Stagecoach service 2 between Queensgate and Cranford Drive on Mondays to Saturdays will now operate via Bourges Boulevard and Westfield Road. These journeys will no longer serve Peterborough District Hospital, Aldermans Drive/ Midland Road or Priory Road. However after 1815 on Mondays to Saturdays and all day Sundays, buses will continue to serve the existing route as Service 2A.

bullet Stagecoach service 36: an additional journey will operate in each direction at 0820 from Thorney School to Peterborough and 1735 Peterborough to Thorney School. The 0835 Peterborough to Wisbech journey will terminate at Thorney School and the 0920 Thorney School to Peterborough journey will depart at 0905 and will operate 15 minutes earlier throughout. Relevant pages have been updated.

bullet Stagecoach service X7 (Peterborough - March) will be extended to Chatteris, Ely and Cambridge with a revised timetable. Previously this route only ran to Cambridge on Sundays.

bullet Arriva Fox service 308 Maxey - Peterborough: the 1235 Peterborough District Hospital - Queensgate - Maxey journey will only operate on Tuesdays and Fridays at 1225 and will operate 10 minutes earlier throughout.

bullet Arriva Fox service 309 Maxey - Peterborough: all journeys will operate via Priory Road in Peterborough rather than Grange Road. The 1220 Peterborough to Glinton journey will now operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 1230 from Peterborough and will operate 10 minutes later throughout. This journeys will also be extended to Maxey to replace service 308.

bullet Arriva Fox service 310 Stamford - Peterborough: the 1135 Stamford to Peterborough will operate 50 minutes later throughout. On Saturdays this journey will only operate between Stamford and Edith Cavell Hospital. On Saturdays the 1315 Peterborough to Stamford journey will operate 30 minutes later throughout.

bullet Arriva Fox service 312 Ailsworth - Edith Cavell Hospital: the Monday journeys on this service will be withdrawn. The Saturday journey will now return from Edith Cavell Hospital to Ailsworth at 1300 instead of 1235 and operate 25 minutes later throughout.

bullet Relevant pages on this site have now been updated.

05/06/02, amended 10/06/02

Rambler Service 50

bullet Rambler's evening service 50 to Stanground and Park Farm will be rerouted from June 5 with a new timetable. The route will be revised so that Lawson Avenue is served in both directions. After Park Farm Way the bus will serve the Oakdale Avenue area with a new clockwise loop (Whittlesey Road, Desborough Avenue, Mace Road, Wright Avenue, Oakdale Avenue) and will then turn from Whittlesey Road into Coneygree Road, continuing (as outward) via Lawson Avenue. Stanground College continues to be served in both directions, and the service also now serves London Road and Fletton High Street. For full details see the complete timetable.

29/05/02 (revised 31/05/02)

New Taxibus service from June 5th

bullet From Wednesday June 5 a new Taxibus service aimed at London commuters will operate from Etton, Helpston, Maxey, Northborough, Peakirk and Glinton to Peterborough Railway Station and Queensgate Bus Station. Morning arrivals in Peterborough will be at 0649, 0719 and 0749, and evening departures from Queensgate (2 minutes later from the station) will be at 1900, 1930 and 2000.

bullet This service is demand-responsive from Etton, Helpston and parts of Maxey, which means that to travel from these areas you will have to pre-book by 5pm the previous day (or 2pm the same day for evening journeys) by phoning Aardvark Coaches on 01733 561222. See the complete Taxibus timetable for full details. I am grateful to Peterborough City Council for providing this information.

29/05/02 (revised 30/05/02)

Nostalgia, and a new AMVC page

bullet The Nostalgia pages on this site now include a feature on Peterborough's Bus War in 1992/3, when Fen Travel ran in many parts of the city in competition with Viscount. I hope to add more photos in due course.

bullet A new timetable page has been added for Arthur Mellows Village College, Glinton, detailing the Stagecoach school runs from various parts of Peterborough.

29/05/02 (revised 30/05/02)

Golden Jubilee Weekend

bullet All buses in the Peterborough area will be running to a Sunday timetable on Monday June 3rd and Tuesday June 4th. Morley's, however, will not run late evening - last buses will be at 1900 from Coates and 1945 from Peterborough (terminating at Whittlesey).

bullet In contrast, GNER will be running basically a normal train service (with slight variations), and WAGN has a special service, based on the Saturday timetable. There will be extra WAGN trains late evening on Monday and early morning on Tuesday - ring National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950 for details.

29/05/02 (revised 30/05/02)

Stagecoach fares revised

bullet From April 28, Stagecoach fares have been revised. The Dayrider ticket becomes £2.60 (previously £2.50), the Megarider goes up 50p to £7.50 and the Goldrider costs £1.00 more at £15.00.

28/04/02

305/307 renumbered, and minor changes to X4, 8, 43 and 44

bullet From April 8, service 307 (Peterborough - Spalding) has been renumbered 37. The 305 Saturday variation to Sutton St Edmund has been renumbered 35. There are no timetable changes to either service.

bullet Service X4: A new Oundle - Northampton journey departs at 0732, Mondays to Saturdays. Latterly this route has been operated solely by Kettering and Northampton depots, but presumably this change marks a return to involvement by Oundle outstation.

bullet Service 8: the 1545 from John Fisher School to Queensgate runs 10 minutes earlier throughout.

bullet Service 43: The 1555 from Kings School to Wansford, Kings Cliffe and Oundle runs 10 minutes later throughout.

bullet Service 44: The Schooldays journeys have been withdrawn, namely 0725 Kings Cliffe - Stamford, returning at 1640, and the 0750 Stamford - Oundle (Prince William School), returning at 1550.

28/04/02

747 Peterborough - Leicester

bullet From April 2, Arriva Fox County's Peterborough - Leicester service 747 has been cut back to run Uppingham - Leicester only, although the frequency is increased to hourly. The Peterborough - Uppingham section has been replaced by new service R47 (which also continues beyond Uppingham to Belton), running only three times per day. The new service is also operated by Arriva. A full timetable for the R47 has been added to this site. Relevant destination pages have been updated.

bullet The last through journey from Peterborough to Leicester (1725 on Saturday March 30) was operated by Thurmaston based Mercedes midibus 1154 (N354 OBC), though the date will probably be remembered more for the sad loss of the Queen Mother!

bullet For the record, there is also a new much improved service 12 between Uppingham and Stamford, running every 2 hours and operated by Arriva. This also connects at Uppingham with the Leicester service, and replaces the previous infrequent service operated by Paul James Coaches.

bullet The 747 Sunday service (one journey each way Leicester - Peterborough), operated by Roberts, has also been withdrawn - it last ran on March 24.

30/03/02, updated 01/04/02

Easter bus services

bullet Good Friday - Stagecoach, Morleys and Cavalier (331) are running a normal Friday service. Delaine is running a Saturday service on 101/2 Peterborough - Bourne, except that the last bus from Bourne is 1730, and from Peterborough 1830. Neither Delaine nor Kimes will be operating between Peterborough and Stamford, but the Sunday 300/2/3 routes operated by Cavalier under contract to Peterborough City Council will run. First Eastern Counties X94 will run a Sunday service according the City Council, but a call to the company suggests it may be a normal Friday service, so check before travelling. There will be no service on Arriva 308 - 312 or 747 according to the City Council.

bullet Easter Saturday - normal Saturday services.

bullet Easter Sunday - Stagecoach and First Eastern Counties will run a normal Sunday service, but there will be no Delaine buses running. Cavalier 300/2/3 will not run, and Roberts 747 has been withdrawn (see item above). Morleys have a revised Sunday service, with the last bus from Peterborough being at 1645.

bullet Easter Monday - Sunday services on all routes. However, the City Council's `Bus News' implies that Cavalier 300/2/3 will not run.

28/03/02 (2nd revision)

Goodman 808 and Stagecoach 311

bullet The Monday to Friday service 808 operated by Goodman (previously shown as Aardvark) has been altered and there is now an early Peterborough - Stamford journey at 0710 via Wansford and Wittering. Both Stamford - Peterborough journeys (0750 and 1625) now serve Easton on the Hill and Collyweston. The change took effect from February 25.

bullet Stagecoach's schooldays service 311, which existed largely to link Wittering and Stamford with Arthur Mellows Village College at Glinton, has been changed into a contract service since the half-term holiday (Feb 25). However, it still runs in public service on schooldays between Peterborough and Glinton via Newborough and Peakirk (this corrects information previously given here).

06/03/02, corrected 09/03/02

National Express Summer Timetable

bullet The new National Express timetable valid March 25 to September 22 is now included in the Summary of Express Departures and Arrivals. There are separate pages for the summer service.

bullet The only change to note, other than minor retimings, is the rerouting of the Liverpool - Clacton journey between Nottingham and Peterborough to run via Leicester instead of Bingham, Grantham and Stamford. The Liverpool - Cambridge journey continues to take the latter route, however.

01/03/02

New Pages

bullet New pages have been added - one for Alwalton and Chesterton and one for Stibbington, Sibson (Wansford NVR Station) and Waternewton.

bullet The villages around Gedney Hill served by Stagecoach's Saturday 305 service have also been added.

bullet X94 destinations on the site now include Dereham, Swaffham, Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

20/02/02 - 28/02/02

Minor retimings to service 307

bullet From February 4, the 0640 Crowland - Spalding and 0710 Spalding - Peterborough journeys run 5 minutes earlier. Arrival time into Peterborough at 0805 is unchanged.

bullet It transpires that the Eye page was never properly completed and has been showing incorrect times since it was introduced. Apologies for this - it has now been thoroughly rechecked.

19/02/02

Full timetable for service 309

bullet Since April, service 309, operated by Arriva and financed by the City Council, has provided a through link to Edith Cavell Hospital and Bretton from Maxey, Helpston, Glinton, Werrington and Walton. As this service is poorly advertised I have now added a complete timetable for this route, and there are links to it on relevant pages.

04/02/02

Delaine 201 - new route around the Stamford estates

bullet From January 28, Delaine's 201 (Peterborough - Stamford) is again rerouted beyond Red Lion Square. The extension to Rutland Heights, introduced in August, has been withdrawn, and the route no longer travels along Aberdeen Close or Caithness Road. The new simplified (and shorter) routeing is a one-way loop via Casterton Road, the full length of Arran Road, Empingham Road, then turning left at the Danish Invader into Sutherland Way, returning via Casterton Road to the bus station. Timings between Peterborough and Stamford centre are unchanged.

26/01/02

Kimes and Cavalier changes from January 7

bullet There are minor retimings to most journeys on Kimes service 11, particularly affecting the Stamford - Peterborough direction, in order to overcome delays caused by traffic congestion in Stamford (particularly to the town service, which is inter-worked with the Peterborough journeys).

bullet From Peterborough, Kime's 1715 journey is retimed (again) to 1730, and on Saturdays the 0915 moves to 0925 as on Mondays to Fridays. From Stamford, journeys previously leaving at 25 minutes past the hour now run 10 minutes later. Timings at intermediate points have been adjusted on all journeys. The Ailsworth/Castor, Wansford/Wittering and Stamford pages have been updated.

bullet One journey on Cavalier's service 331 is also retimed from January 7. The 0729 from Ramsey St Mary to Ramsey, continuing to Whittlesey (with a Peterborough connection) via Ramsey Mereside now operates the other way around the loop starting from Ramsey Mereside and serving Bury, Upwood and Ramsey St Mary after Ramsey rather than before.

06/01/02, expanded 26/01/02

New evening service for Stanground and Park Farm

bullet Peterborough City Council has announced a new evening service 50 running from the bus station (bay 7) via Fletton Avenue, Princes Road and South Street to the Powerleague five-a-side football complex at Stanground College, returning via the rail station.

bullet After Stanground College the bus also performs a loop of Stanground and Park Farm via South Street, Coneygree Road, Lawson Avenue, Ellwood Avenue, Park Farm Way and Oakdale Avenue. It then turns right along the main road and diverts around Romany Gardens, Lawson Avenue and Kingston Drive before returning along the main road to Stanground College and then on to the city centre.

bullet The new service, which starts on January 7, is operated by Rambler. Departures from Queensgate are hourly from 1845 to 2245, Mondays to Saturdays. The final journey terminates at Oakdale Avenue and does not return to the city centre. Return and season tickets issued by other operators serving this area are accepted.

bullet Together with Stagecoach service 54, this gives Stanground a half-hourly service during the evenings. The Park Farm area and Oakdale Avenue did not previously have an evening service.

06/01/02, updated 07/01/02

Further destinations added

bullet A flurry of activity over Christmas and the New Year has resulted in a major expansion to the site's timetable coverage, as detailed below.

bullet The page covering Orton Centre (which was an early prototype) has been scrapped and there are new pages covering Orton Brimbles, Orton Centre, Orton Goldhay/Malborne, Orton Longueville, Orton Mere, Orton Southgate and Orton Wistow.

bullet Other city destinations added are Hampton Hargate, Hampton (Serpentine Green), Park Farm, Westwood and Woodston.

bullet New country destinations are Brampton, Buckden and St Neots on the Bedford route, and several villages west of Peterborough, namely Apethorpe, Glapthorn, King's Cliffe, Nassington, Southwick, Woodnewton and Yarwell. Oundle's Rockingham Hills estate has also been added.

01/01/02 - 05/01/02

Page updated 29/12/09