Martin Marsh, Acting Operations Director of Cambridgeshire’s biggest bus operator, Stagecoach East, said: “We regret, on behalf of our loyal customers, that yet again we have Cadent Gas works on Hills Road with no meaningful prior engagement with affected bus operators.
“Hills Road is the key road artery into Cambridge, bringing tens of thousands of bus passengers into the city. Any traffic-light control on Hills Road causes delays; as previous experience has shown.
“We will do everything in our power to try to minimise the implications for our customers, but there is so much more we could have done if Cadent had simply met with us well in advance, engaged meaningfully and worked together to identify mitigations.
“We have asked, on numerous previous occasions, for meaningful engagement, and it is only in the past day that we have been able to meet and stress the importance of working together, in the future, for the benefit of the people of Cambridge.
“We had understood, from previous conversations, that the works would not happen until the new year, but now we understand that they will be starting in a matter of days, Monday 5th October 2026, and complete by Friday 4th December.
“We need to establish a firm protocol whereby Cadent finally delivers meaningful stakeholder engagement with bus operators, so that we can understand the situation in detail and work together to mitigate the negative consequences as best as possible.
“Can we please offer our sincere apologies to our customers for the impacts this work will have.”