Two rural bus services that cost more than £100 to run for every passenger who used them are to be cut.

The once-weekly 15 service between Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire, and Royston, Hertfordshire, cost £48,297 to run in 2024-25, working out at a cost per passenger of £180.

Meanwhile, the 8A service offering one journey a day in each direction between March, Cambridgeshire, and Milton Park and Ride, Cambridge, cost £188,753 to run, with each passenger journey working out at just over £100.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has agreed to stop subsidising both services, saying it had to make "tough choices" based on cost and usage.

At a meeting on Wednesday the authority's board heard that the 8A route had been extended to take it to the park and ride in the hope it would improve passenger numbers. However, a report stated there had been a "limited change" in numbers, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Officers told the board that the loss of the 15 service would be mitigated through the expansion of the Tiger On Demand service in South Cambridgeshire. They said an agreement had been reached with South Cambridgeshire District Council to use money provided by developers to fund the expansion of this service.

Anna Bailey, the Conservative leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, said discussing bus services was an "emotive subject" but there was not enough money to support every service across the area. She said they had to make tough choices as there was not an "endless pot of money".

Lucy Nethsingha, the Liberal Democrat leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, said it was a "controversial" decision but she would be supporting it.

Anna Smith, a Labour cabinet member at Cambridge City Council, said they needed to make sure people in rural communities did not become "trapped" when losing a bus service.

The two services will not be cut immediately as 112 days' contractual notice must be given to the traffic commissioner.

The board agreed to continue supporting a number of other bus services in Cambridgeshire, including ones that connect to neighbouring Lincolnshire and Suffolk.

The services include:
- 8, between Cambridge and Papworth Everard
- 46A, between Newmarket and Linton
- 5A, between St Ives and Bar Hill
- 27, between Stamford and Peterborough
- 61, between Eynesbury and Eaton Ford
- 68, Wisbech Town Service
- V4, between St Ives Bus Station and Boxworth

Gobsmacked - was that schedule to be an IET?   No reason why not, of course, as far as Westbury but the idea of holding a hand out to stop an IET at Dilton Marsh is surreal

Are IETs even cleared for travel south of Westbury to Salisbury? They may be for getting to Eastleigh for repairs to their yaw damper brackets. (Yes I had to look that up  )

No concrete evidence for this but I suspect cases of short forms will be more prevalent away from the London Bristol route over the next two and a half weeks as every effort is made to ensure maximum capacity for Bath Christmas market which started today. 

Gobsmacked - was that schedule to be an IET?   No reason why not, of course, as far as Westbury but the idea of holding a hand out to stop an IET at Dilton Marsh is surreal

Delays to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a safety inspection of the track between London Paddington and Reading trains have to run at reduced speed on some lines.

Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed by up to 15 minutes. Disruption is expected until 18:00 27/11.

17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06

Facilities on the 17:50 Gloucester to Salisbury due 20:06.
Will be formed of 3 coaches instead of 5. First class reduced.

As well as the previous noted items, the bridge over the port entrance at Sea Mills needs replacing badly.

No, I haven't lost the plot!
Rather, I'm sharing member ChrisB's view that this sort of problem won't suddenly go away on New Year's Eve:
I'm merely preparing the ground here, ready for member TaplowGreen to develop this topic, in due course.
CfN.

Across the whole entire GWR IET fleet, there’s approximately 100 engines isolated.  If they’re rectifying 3 a day, that’ll be over a months worth of worth excluding new failures.  Add to that, the countless speed restrictions in place because of track defects and the picture is grim.

Apologies too for thread drift. AFAIK Cheltenham Road Viaduct is double-track as-built (standard not broad gauge). Assuming it's structurally sound, the problem is that if you redouble, you have to rebuild Montpelier and Redland stations which will mean lifts etc. and I suspect £10m+ each by the time you are done (not to mention they are tight sites very close to housing). IIRC, there is a plan being progressed by WECA and NR to redouble up to (St Andrews?) tunnel east of Montpelier Station with a revised junction onto the mainline which would give a significant capacity uplift for less money and minimal disruption.

As well as the previous noted items, the bridge over the port entrance at Sea Mills needs replacing badly.

Any suggestions why it's happening now - what's changed?

With apologies for continuing the thread drift (does this warrant its own topic? Not sure...) Cheltenham Road Viaduct does look to be reasonably capacious (see Google Maps image). Clause 18 of The Great Western and Midland Railways (Clifton and Bristol) Act of 1871 implies that part or all of the line was originally built to broad guage, so I suspect they at least allowed for this - even though the iron spans of the bridge were cast in Derby, which suggests the contract may have been let by the Midland.