The Cambridgeshire’s Guided Busway is celebrating its one millionth customer, just five months after it opened.
The route is operated by both Stagecoach and Go Whippet.
The millionth passenger, who boarded on Thursday (January 12), was Christine Chandler, who was taking her father Len Burrow, the millionth and first passenger, to Addenbrooke’s Hospital from St Ives Park and Ride.
Christine, who was greeted by representatives from both operators and the County Council, is a regular user since in opened.
She said: “We use the busway regularly to go shopping or to the hospital. It is really convenient and means you don’t have to go on the A14. It is really regular, reliable and efficient and has got us where we want to go on time. It was a complete surprise to be the millionth passenger and we are really pleased.”
Cambridgeshire County Councillor Steve Criswell, cabinet member for community infrastructure, said: “This is a massive milestone for the busway and is ahead of our business forecasts. The busway is proving very popular as a fast and reliable way to travel and I was pleased to see our millionth customer ride the busway.”
Andy Campbell, managing director at Stagecoach Cambridgeshire, said: “The Busway has been a much bigger success than we had hoped for and have already had to put more services on. We are now looking at buying more new buses and running further extra services. We look forward to seeing the next million journeys.”
Peter Lee, director of Whippet Coaches, said: “The Busway is an ideal way of avoiding the A14. We are really pleased with just how successful it has been from day one. This is a great benefit for Cambridgeshire and Whippet is delighted to be part of its success story.”
It is claimed the new Busway service carries 50,000 passengers a week compared with 24,000 on the old bus routes.
This means the people using the busway are not just transfers from old bus routes, but are also new bus users.
