Cambridge and Peterborough get express linked

Tuesday 27th January 2026

Another interesting new commercially operated bus route hit the road yesterday and I was pleased to give it a try out on its first day. I say ‘bus route’ but a more accurate description is ‘express coach route’.

Launched by Whippet, and branded as Blue Arrow, route X1 provides a new fast express service between Cambridge and Peterborough with an end to end journey time scheduled for 80 minutes and just one intermediate stop on the route at Huntingdon bus station.

It’s operated by a single Neoplan Tourliner coach – one of six Whippet retains from its abandoned FlixBus contract and now in standard Whippet livery.

The introductory timetable is fairly limited having four southbound and three full length northbound journeys and another two covering part of the route.

Whippet’s General Manager, Ed Cameron, told me using just one vehicle for the timetable “doesn’t quite provide times into the three destinations that work well” but encouragingly adds “depending on the reception it gets for the first few months, we then plan to put a second coach on which will make it a much more attractive option”.

As you can see the Huntingdon based vehicle provides an early arrival into Peterborough at 06:35 before a peak hour journey to Cambridge arriving there at 08:25. However, the last journey back from Cambridge to Peterborough is as early as 15:30 which is probably a good time for shoppers and leisure travellers who could have also arrived into Cambridge on the 11:50 arrival, but not so good for any commuters.

In the northbound direction Cambridge to Peterborough travellers can leave at 08:50 and arrive at 10:10 with handy return options at 13:40 and 17:20.

Fares are reasonable at £8 single or £14 return for an end to end journey. Concessionary pass holders don’t travel free but pay the same as under 16s at £6 single and £10.50 return.

The southern half of the route. Cambridge to Huntingdon, is also well served by the recently introduced Tiger branded route T1 operated by Whippet for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority running approximately hourly but with a journey time of around an hour as well as Whippet’s own route X3 with a similar journey time.

There’s also Stagecoach’s route B via St Ives every 20 minutes which takes a lengthy one hour and 44 minutes making for an arduous end-to-end journey.

The new Blue Arrow X1 takes just 40 minutes but departs from the slightly less convenient Parkside bus stops in Cambridge rather than Drummer Street bus station used by routes T1, X2 and B.

However, Parkside is the city’s traditional location for express coach departures – used by both National Express and FlixBus and at one time Stagecoach’s X5, when it went through to Oxford.

The Parkside facilities are pretty limited (just three minimalist bus shelters)…

… but the upside is it provides handy connections to NatEx and FlixBus and it has to be said, Drummer Street is nothing to shout about, although it is under cover.

Between Huntingdon and Peterborough Stagecoach East/Dews Route 904 provides an hourly frequency but takes an hour and a quarter compared to Blue Arrow X1 taking just 40 minutes.

Again, in Peterborough, the new Blue Arrow eschews Queensgate bus station (used by the 904). merely using the bus station to pass through on its way to set down in Broadway and then pick up in Westgate.

The layout of Queensgate, like Drummer Street, makes it impossible for a wheelchair user to access the coach through the lift on the nearside, especially as this is towards the rear of the coach.

A similar situation applies at Huntingdon bus station but the company advises wheelchair users aren’t able to board there.

As can be appreciated from the foregoing, Blue Arrow provides a much quicker journey albeit with only a handful of departures but, of course, there’s also a fairly intensive rail service as an alternative with Cross Country providing an hourly frequency between Cambridge and Peterborough via Ely with another hourly option using Greater Anglia and changing at Ely on to East Midlands Railway both taking around 50-55 minutes but with a full price day return of £26.90 (reducing to £24.90 off peak) compared to £14 on the new Blue Arrow.

Huntingdon to Peterborough is also well served by Thameslink’s half hourly service taking just 20 minutes at a full price of £10.70 return (£8.50 off peak) compared to Blue Arrow’s £6.

I sampled the 12:05 from Cambridge Parkside to Peterborough yesterday.

For those unfamiliar with Parkside, Whippet has produced a clear map to show where to board the coach as well as the only other stop on the service, in Huntington bus station, and the alighting and boarding points in Peterborough.

The coach arrived a few minutes ahead of time from its previous journey from Peterborough and it didn’t take long for me to meet up with Wayne and Steve who are going to be the two regular drivers on the route.

Steve welcomed me aboard confirming I was their very first passenger as I handed over £6 for a reduced rate single to Peterborough.

As well as timetable leaflets there was a supply of chocolates to welcome passengers aboard on this inaugural day but sadly no other passengers boarded in Cambridge.

The coach has comfortable seats…

…with good legroom and comes with a toilet giving a real quality ambiance to the journey.

We left spot on time at 12:05 making our way out of the city towards the A14 which we joined 15 minutes later…

…taking us all the way to Huntingdon where we arrived in the town’s bus station at 12:33, 12 minutes ahead of the departure time.

As in Parkside, departure times were on display in the bus station, as well as leaflets in the waiting room…

… and the X1 was shown on the electronic departure listings.

Even better, another passenger joined us, having seen we were going to Peterborough, and decided to jump aboard rather than wait for the 904.

Again we left on time at 12:45 and made our way over to the A1(M) for our non-stop second half journey to Peterborough where we arrived exactly half an hour later at 13:15.

Ignoring the pause time in Huntingdon bus station it had taken just a couple of minutes under an hour’s driving time from Cambridge to Peterborough.

Which made me wonder whether a tightening up of the journey time allowance to just an hour (with adequate layover times at each end) might help to promote the service as a great alternative to the train.

The Blue Arrow branding can be found on the printed leaflet, online and at bus stops but it would make a great impact if the livery of the coach could carry the Blue Arrow message with the three destinations served as well as promoting it as a turn-up-and-go express coach service.

High profile promotion of a service of this kind is essential to raise awareness especially as it escapes the normal coverage that local bus services achieve with local authority support and commitment.

Wayne observed it wasn’t yet appearing in Google Maps’ travel options but hopefully that can be rectified.

One things for sure, both Wayne and Steve are great ambassadors for the route – they’ve worked together before on National Express work – and make for a great team.

And as I wandered past the picking up stop in Peterborough it was encouraging to see a passenger waiting for the 13:40 journey to Cambridge. She told me her Mum had told her about it having seen it on Facebook.

I wish this new route every success and hope the fledgling initial timetable will give confidence leading to future expansion and the deployment of more resources to expand the journey options.

Roger French

Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS