A visit to Waterbeach, where there’s no beach.

Saturday 6th June 2026

Following my recent blog about the Section 106 Developer funded route to Leigh Green Garden Village in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, (and references to new route 33 in anoher recent blog being Developer funded) I’m again on the Developer Funded Bus Route trail and this time in neighbouring Cambridgeshire.

And once again it’s another route operated by that ever expanding company, Central Connect, and it’s yet another route 100 to add to my collection blogged about in 2024 albeit this one escaped that scrutiny as it only started last July.

It serves the huge new residential development at Waterbeach which will see the existing village more than double in size over the next 20 years and become what is being called a New Town. Along with the new bus route there are also plans for a new railway station (on the Cambridge to Ely line) to be sited about a mile and a half north of the existing station which is closer to the new development but further away from the existing village.

Construction of the ‘New Town’ is already well under way – it’s on the site of a huge former barracks and disused airfield.

Reading the inspirational online marketing descriptions of how living will be transformed for those who move to Waterbeach as well as watching the video content it sounds such a wonderful and idyllic place to live but I hope no one is banking on the new railway station opening in 2027 as featured in the write up.

That’s not going to happen as no work has yet started although South Cambridgeshire District Council Planning Committee has approved plans to move the station including provision of “a shuttle bus between the Village and the relocated Station” – it’ll be interesting to see how long that lasts before no doubt being ditched or maybe incorporated into a Tiger branded DRT.

But in the meantime new residents moving in have route 100 to take them either to the site of the existing station in Waterbeach village or through to Cambridge with a half hour journey time. And, an extensive operating day too, from 05:50 to 23:30 with a slightly later start on Saturday (06:30) and Sunday (08:20). Such is the luxury of developer funding.

A half hourly frequency is operated with the route requiring three buses with weekends having an hourly frequency.

The route begins at Cambridge Research Park before crossing the A10 and passing through a bus only access road on to the former Airfield and Barracks site which will eventually be transformed into a country park, schools, employment space and all those new homes.

After passing through the existing village of Waterbeach the bus continues via Horningsea and Fen Ditton into Cambridge.

It’s quite a novel experience travelling through the former Barracks and then across an old Airfield…

… as although some work has been done to create leisure spaces, there’s still much development work to be done and it does feel like passing through a giant construction site.

Not surprisingly on my late morning journey from Cambridge we didn’t carry any passengers to or from the terminus at the Research Park with the last of seven passengers alighting at the southern end of the development area. Five of the other passengers had alighted on the route out of Cambridge (two), in Fen Ditton (two), Horningsea (one) and Waterbeach old village (one).

The Research Park is also served by a bespoke minibus shuttle service although there wasn’t any information at the bus stop to tell any potential users where it will shuttle you to.

I guess Research businesses and companies based in the Park let their employees know direct. There was a timetable for the Central Connect 100…

… and also a timetable for a supposedly jointly operated route 9 (between Stagecoach and A2B Travel) which links the Research Centre with Cambridge via the Science Park taking 26 minutes.

However, it looked to me as though the display was out of date not only showing incorrect times but also I can’t see any evidence on Stagecoach’s website it operates journeys on the route. While I was there at 12:44 an A2B Travel bus heading towards Cambridge passed through – despite the timetable display saying it should have been a Stagecoach bus at 12:14 – so all very confusing.

I returned to Cambridge on the 100 leaving at 12:45 as we retraced the route across the former airfield reaching what is being called a “sustainable travel hub”…

… by the new development already occupied with residents.

Continuing south through the former barracks there’s much construction work taking place for the new residents to transform their lives and make Waterbeach their new home.

Back in the old village, as we passed one of the other two buses on the route with just a couple of passengers on board, we picked a passenger up who travelled just down the road to Horningsea and later in Fen Ditton another passenger boarded travelling to the Retail Park by a large Tesco on the way into Cambridge city centre.

It was good to see Central Connect has produced an easy to follow timetable leaflet with route map and had supplies available on the bus.

And it was also noticeable how the road surface though the new development was to a high standard so hopefully in the years to come there won’t be an issue with pot holes.

It was encouraging to see a bus service at an attractive frequency already in place before thousands of residents move in but it will be interesting to see what happens when the developer funding runs out. That’s because the original part of Waterbeach enjoys a frequent link into Cambridge thanks to Stagecoach’s route PR5 – the Park & Ride route which serves the Milton Park & Ride site to the north of the city every half an hour and from where alternate buses continue north to serve Landbeach and Waterbeach on a clockwise circuit as shown in red on the map below, compared to route 100 shown in blue.

The green route was the Combined Authority funded route 19A operated by A2B Travel which used to run two journeys a day between Landeach, Waterbeach, Horningsea and Fen Ditton into Cambridge. It was one of the routes on the Combined Authority’s hit list for withdrawal not least as it became superfluous following the arrival of route 100 and with inbound journeys at 06:50 and 09:30 and return from Cambridge at 12:30 and 17:55 it’s not surprising it carried on average less than half a passenger per journey. It met its fate yesterday, when it ran for the last time and is now withdrawn.

A review of both route PR5 and 100 would seem sensible once more residents have moved in and the ‘New Town’ of Waterbeach is more established, along with that new railway station.

Roger French

Revised blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu. As it’s June, the BusAndTrainUser enhanced blogging timetable returns for the 2026 summer season with summer Su blogging commencing from tomorrow.