Bus passengers pleased at-risk services continue

Bethany Merry said she "does not have [other modes of] transport" and had been worried about the bus routes being cut

Bus passengers said they were pleased that their services have continued to run after an operator withdrew from two routes.

Two bus services in Cambridgeshire, which were previously at risk of closing after Stagecoach stopped running the routes at the end of August, have taken their first passengers under new operators.

Bus company Dews has taken on the 31 and X31, connecting Ramsey, March and Whittlesey and A2B is now operating the 9 and X9 routes between Littleport and Ely.

Bethany Merry, 26, does not drive and said she "would not have been able to get around" without the services that connect towns to cities such as Peterborough.

Stagecoach announced it would stop running several services, including the 31 and the 9 service, due to a lack of passengers.

Funding to continue the routes was agreed by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

Choice Fredericks, who uses the bus to get to work, said the train station was too far away and a taxi would be "too expensive"

Ms Merry, 26, said without the bus service connecting her from Ramsey to Peterborough it would have been "really hard for me to get about".

"I have a little boy, so I'd like to be able to take him on the bus and go places with him. It's amazing they have found a way to get round it," she said.

"It's a bit of nowhere land in Ramsey... I rely on my partner a lot to drive me around, so to have a bus to go places when he is at work is amazing."

Choice Fredericks, 64, from March, said she was "panicking" about having to pay for a taxi to and from work in Whittlesey.

She added the bus services continuing would "help her very much" as a taxi was "too expensive and the train station is a long way".

Ilene Warren, 81, said she was "pleased" the services would continue, allowing her to catch connecting buses and travel to work in Peterborough.

Ilene Warren, 81, said she was "pleased" the services would continue

Paul Bristow, the Conservative Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said it was important to ensure places such as Ramsey and March were not "cut off".

"It's so important for young people accessing education opportunities [and] people accessing work," he said.

"We have stepped in and decided to subsidise these routes, we found new providers and it goes live from [1 September]."

He said about £500,000 had been invested into saving the routes, adding: "I think it is the right thing to do."

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