Cambridge South & the Busway
On Sunday 28th of June, Cambridge South station opened, so of course I decided to take a visit.
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| My train to Cambridge South |
The train I took was a class 379, which I was initially quite excited about as I had never taken one before,
but as the train accelerated down the ECML, I noticed a major, glaring problem: the suspension. I don't know whether this was a train or track fault, but the train just could not stay stable. It wasn't some minor rattling - the train literally swung from side to side.
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| Two Cambridges and one abomination |
After some rattling, I arrived at Cambridge South station. It's a large(ish), 4-platform station, and it is heralded as being the first GBR-branded station.
In reality, the signage was just a bland black on white, and the only actual splashes of colour came from posters slapped everywhere reminding passengers that the railway is "owned by you", and that they were building a "railway Britain can rely on". Unfortunately for the news and fortunately for the passengers, very few trains were cancelled that day at Cambridge South.
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| The East Entrance |
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| The West Entrance |
Cambridge South has two large entrances. The East Entrance serves the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, while the West Entrance serves Southern Cambridge, including the area of Trumpington.
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| Getting the bus to Cambridge |
To get to Cambridge City Centre, I decided to take the busway, when, to my horror, I discovered that south of Cambridge city centre, route A only runs once an hour. Despite this, the bus was quite busy, with almost no seats left.
After lunch, I took another busway service (Route A again) to Oakington, which was the furthest I could travel on my PlusBus ticket.
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| Oakington Station/Stop |
The busway "station" had a basic waiting shelter, "platforms", and a next bus information board. It was quite unusual to see these provisions, often seen at tram stops, serving two bus routes.
Unfortunately, as is an issue with all trains & trams, there were engineering works on the busway, forcing route B to take a lengthy diversion, and speed limits to install safety fences.
