A successful bid for a Government grant could help see the already highly successful Busway extend services across the County.

Cambridgeshire County Council has been told today by Government that a £1.7 million bid for the Better Bus Area Fund led by the authority has been successful and unlocks further millions of pounds of funding.

Plans to look at extending some peak Busway journey’s as far as Chatteris, Peterborough and Ramsey form part of a massive package of proposals to improve bus services to Cambridge.

The bid was led by Cambridgeshire County Council in partnership with South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cambridge City Council and bus operators Stagecoach East and Whippet Coaches Ltd.

The County Council will be working with Stagecoach looking at extending services so they link in with the Busway and St Ives.

This will help provide more services to rural areas and help give the opportunity for further transport links.

This is great news for Cambridgeshire and reflects the County Councils drive to improve all forms of transport. The Busway is highly successful and we welcome Stagecoach East’s willingness to experiment with new linking services. This has always been one of the added bonuses of the Busway that additional services from rural and remote parts of the County could benefit. If successful these could create further transport links or provide even more commercial incentive for further bus services.

Andy Campbell of Stagecoach said: “The Busway is a massive success and Stagecoach East is investing millions of pounds into Cambridgeshire. This new bid means that we can experiment in providing new services that link into the Busway from further afield. We are really pleased to work in partnership with the Councils to bring these improvements forward.”