Stagecoach East 15659 (AE10 HFC) in Newmarket - 11 Oct 2022 (P1130704)

Tuesday 11 October 2022 (1136) – Stagecoach East 15659 (AE10 HFC), an Alexander Dennis (ADL) Enviro400 bodied Scania N230UD, was new in June 2010 for operation on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway. It has now had the necessary guide wheels removed but the bracket where they were fitted can be seen.

I was queuing to board the bus at The Guineas Bus Station in Newmarket as it worked the 0950 Cambridge to Bury St. Edmunds service 11. Due to a number of different roadworks taking place around the town with resultant diversions and temporary traffic lights traffic was pretty chaotic. This service should have arrived at 1107 and then continued to Bury St. Edmunds at 1124.

During mid-September 2022 Stagecoach East announced its intention to withdraw quite a number of bus services which it said were no longer commercially sustainable. Their services 11/X11 ceased after operation on Saturday 29 October 2022 along with the Cambridge-Newmarket-Ely service 12. Replacement services were introduced by Stephensons of Essex from Monday 31 October 2022.

Using the tracker on the Bus Times website this bus was shown as running the following trips today:

0543 Empty Depot to Newmarket
0615 Newmarket-Bury St. Edmunds 0640 (11)
0645 Bury St. Edmunds-Cambridge 0754 (X11)
0950 Cambridge-Newmarket 1107 (11)
1124 Newmarket-Bury St. Edmunds 1149 (11)
1205 Bury St. Edmunds-Cambridge 1359 (11)

1835 Cambridge-Bury St. Edmunds 1942 (X11)
1945 Bury St. Edmunds-Newmarket 2015 (11)
Empty to Cambridge Depot 2050

(On other days this duty also included the 1425 Cambridge-Ely 1556 (12) and 1651 Ely-Cambridge 1827 (12) trips but Bus Times for this day showed no vehicle at all operating these two runs).