Route News 2024
Changes to bus services in and around Peterborough (latest items first). For older news see the Archive page.
For details of temporary route diversions and changes (due to roadworks, special events, weather etc) see the local Stagecoach page, Delaine's Twitter page, First's Current Issues page for Excel alterations, and Vectare's Twitter page.
New service Peterborough - Wittering - Stamford from June 3rd
In addition to the Stagecoach June 2nd changes described below, the Combined Authority has arranged for a new Peterborough - Castor - Ailsworth - Wansford - Wittering - Stamford service, to commence on June 3rd. Stagecoach route 27 will run on Mondays to Saturdays with four journeys each way. The timetable is available on the Routes page and relevant Destination pages have revised versions. Presumably ConnectBus route 48 will no longer run as there are journeys in similar timings.
There has not been a Peterborough to Stamford service via Wansford and Wittering since December 2019, when Delaine ceased running its route 205. They had taken over the service from Centrebus (route 9) in October 2018, and shortly before that it had been a Peterborough to Oakham service. Past operators include Kimes and Barton, who until 1988 ran it as route 103, with certain journeys continuing to Nottingham via Melton Mowbray (route 117) taking two and a half hours.
16/05/2024
Flixbus once again running daily
Flixbus route 002 London - Peterborough - Sheffield - Leeds - Bradford is once again running daily, having been reduced to four days per week earlier in the year. Timetables for this and other express coach services through Peterborough can be found at the foot of the Routes page.
13/05/2024
Fenland BusFest not going ahead
Sadly Fenland BusFest has been cancelled due to insufficient entries, but some vehicles may instead be on display at the Fenland Classic Vehicle Show in Ramsey which takes place on the same day, Sunday May 19th.
28/04/2024
Stagecoach changes from June 2nd
From Sunday June 2nd several Stagecoach routes will have a revised timetable, notably with an increase in service on route 1 Werrington - Queensgate - Orton and route 37 to Spalding and Springfields, and an additional journey on route 33.
Route 1 - the Monday to Friday daytime frequency is increased from every 15 minutes to every 12 minutes, matching the current Saturday frequency (which has some minor changes). At peak times it continues to run every 10 minutes. On Sundays departures from Werrington to Queensgate and Queensgate to Orton are five minutes earlier.
Route 2 - many journeys are retimed by a few minutes, particularly on Sundays.
Route 3 - morning peak journeys are retimed on Mondays to Saturdays and now serve the railway station. Other journeys are retimed by a few minutes, particularly on Sundays.
Route 4 - Monday to Saturday journeys are largely unaltered. However, on Sundays departures from Queensgate to City Hospital are retimed to hourly 0800-1700, returning from the Hospital hourly 0733-1733. Sunday departures from Queensgate to Parnwell are hourly 0810-2310, returning 0730-2230.
Route 5 - northbound journeys are retimed by several minutes, for example eight minutes earlier from Yaxley and Amazon and five minutes earlier from Serpentine Green and Queensgate, whereas southbound journeys are mostly unchanged.
Route 6 - on Mondays to Fridays departures are five minutes earlier between 0515 and 0805 from Queensgate to Hampton and between 0535 and 0825 from Hampton College to Queensgate. All inbound journeys throughout the day will serve the railway station en route to Queensgate.
Route 31/33 - several journeys have been retimed, notably from March and Whittlesey towards Peterborough, with a new journey from March at 1713 including on Saturdays.
Route 37 - the service through to Spalding and Springfields is increased to hourly, with journeys previously terminating at Eye being extended to Spalding. Journeys from Peterborough at 0510, 1730 and 1830 will run 10 minutes earlier, and there is a new journey at 0600 from Peterborough returning from Springfields at 0723. Several journeys from Spalding are retimed a few minutes earlier, including evening journeys. The last bus from Blue Diamond Retail Park to Peterborough on Mons to Sats is now two hours earlier at 1545.
Route 60 - the 1425 journey from Queensgate is retimed to 1415.
The new Stagecoach pdf timetables are available on the Routes page (as well as the Stagecoach website) and all relevant Destination pages have revised versions.
26/04/2024, updated 07/05/24
Bank Holiday Services
As usual, Sunday timetables will apply on the Early May Bank Holiday (Monday May 6th) and the Spring Bank Holiday (Monday May 27th).
26/04/2024
Stagecoach Fares from April 21st
There was a general fares increase to Stagecoach day, week and monthly tickets from April 21st - see the Fares page for details. The maximum £2 single fare, sponsored by the Government, will continue at least until the end of 2024.
26/04/2024
Route 29 finishes on Easter Saturday, March 30th
Route 29 from Serpentine Green Shopping Centre to City Hospital via Orton Waterville is being withdrawn, with its last day of operation being Easter Saturday, March 30th. Originally operated by Stagecoach, this 'orbital' service was introduced on March 1st 2021 as an initiative of the Combined Authority Mayor, but has been poorly advertised and poorly used. Operation transferred to Dews Coaches on October 31st 2022, but from the start has been subcontracted to Fowlers.
25/03/2024
Route 6 changes in Hampton from April 14th
Route 6 was given extra running time from October 29th last year in order to serve Hampton Gardens, but apart from the first few days it did not prove possible to serve the main part of Hampton Gardens, and buses have been routed only via Hampton Avenue, London Road and Clayburn Road. From April 14th route 6 will revert to its old route, turning right from Silver Hill into Eagle Way. Departures from Queensgate bus station will not change, but timings from Hampton and Serpentine Green towards the city centre will now be 10 minutes earlier as a result.
The new timetable is available on the Routes page, and there are revised Destination pages for Hampton and Serpentine Green.
25/03/2024
Easter Holiday Arrangements 2024
Good Friday March 29th - Stagecoach East, Excel and Vectare are running a Sunday service; route X4 (operated by Stagecoach Midlands) runs to the Saturday timetable. Delaine 101 Bourne - Market Deeping - Peterborough runs from Bourne at 0730, 0900 then every 30 minutes until 1630; from Peterborough at 0900, 1000 then every 30 minutes until 1730 (no service on route 102). Delaine 201/2 Bourne - Stamford - Peterborough has a Saturday timetable but only runs between 0810 and 1545 from Bourne and between 1000 and 1715 from Peterborough.
Easter Saturday March 30th - Normal Saturday services.
Easter Sunday March 31st - Sunday service on Stagecoach, Excel and Vectare. No service on Delaine.
Easter Monday April 1st - All operators are running Sunday timetables.
15/03/2024
Queensgate Bus Station
From Monday March 4th until Saturday May 11th work will be underway at Queensgate Bus Station to improve the toilets and remove the former kiosk. The works necessitate the closure of Bay 15, so all Vectare services will be departing from Bay 18 instead of Bay 15 during this period.
29/02/2024
Flixbus and National Express
A recent change to Flixbus service 002 through Peterborough (London to Bradford) is that it now only runs on four days per week, namely Friday to Monday. The timings are unchanged, and can be found on the Routes page.
There are also a number of changes to the National Express timetable for route 788, Peterborough to Luton Airport and Heathrow Airport. There are still six daily journeys each way, and details can be found on the Routes page.
29/02/2024
Talk on Peterborough's Trams - March 7th
Not exactly route news, but some of you might be interested in an illustrated talk on Peterborough's trams and tram routes which is happening on Thursday March 7th at 7pm, as part of the local Railway Correspondence and Travel Society (RCTS) programme. Stagecoach in Peterborough has a direct line back to the Peterborough Electric Traction Company, and in fact the trams operated from what is now the Lincoln Road bus depot.
As well as the trams and the people who ran them, the talk will explore the three tram routes with plenty of photos of Peterborough as it was over a hundred years ago. We will also look at the horse buses that preceded the trams, and the motor buses that replaced them. The venue is St Luke's Church on Mayors Walk, and you can find further details here.
19/02/2024
New Vectare route 25 from 2nd January (and R4 reissued)
Vectare is to introduce a new route from January 2nd running between Queensgate and the Alwalton Hill Industrial Estate, which is situated south of the Orton South Interchange on Fletton Parkway. On some maps the area is also shown as Peterborough Gateway and is home to the likes of the LIDL Regional Distribution Centre, also Amazon's 'DPE2' delivery depot opened in 2021. Like Vectare's existing route 24, new route 25 will run along Oundle Road, and most journeys will also divert into Orton Waterville to serve Church Drive. The handful of journeys that omit Church Drive are numbered 25X, whilst there is also one shortworking to Church Drive numbered 25A.
Remarkably the new service will run on seven days a week, with journeys starting as early as 0520 from Queensgate, even at weekends. There will also be late evening journeys - see the Routes page for the full timetable, also a map of the route.
From the same date the R4 timetable is reissued and will no longer run between Christmas and New Year (including this Christmas) or during August due to low demand. Timings are unchanged as far as Peterborough is concerned, other than a two minute later arrival in Uppingham.
06/12/2023