This article originally appeared in the Hunts Post on 19th August 2022
It has been incredibly hot. The previous temperature record was broken by more than one and a half degrees, with 40.3°C recorded at Coningsby. It wasn’t just Coningsby, though – forty-six weather stations across the UK recorded temperatures higher than the previous record of 38.7°C.
How many more summers above 40 degrees will there be? And how far those summers are above 40 degrees, depends greatly on how much more CO2 and other greenhouse gases we emit.
CO2 emissions are higher in Cambridgeshire than the national average. About a quarter of carbon emissions come from road transport, so it’s no surprise we’re higher because we’re a rural area and you need a car to get around. That means we do have an opportunity around here to have a real impact on carbon emissions by improving public transport, particularly buses. What does that look like in practice?
It needs to be quick to get to work, connect up smaller communities, and be an attractive way of travelling.
First, an express service to Cambridge. By the time the Busway B has wiggled around Huntingdon and St Ives, it can take two hours at rush hour to get to Cambridge. The possibility of the 905 from St Neots to Cambridge alternating between a stopping service and a fast service has been mooted, and something similar on the Busway would make it a realistic option for commuters.
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A faster service would mean fewer stops, but that loss of convenience could be made up for by extending the on-demand Ting bus service trial extended across Hunts. That could let people get from across town to, say, the bus station to get the B. It would also make it easier to get into Huntingdon from the outlying villages, and from villages to villages.
To make it attractive, we need to tidy up and repair bus stops and shelters, including the bus station, and publish accessible timetables and journey planning tools, advertising public transport in and beyond our area. It goes without saying that buses should be zero carbon as soon as possible. Ideally, we want bus timetables to be planned with train timetables in mind, so that you don’t have to drive to the station.
Of course, that all costs money. But it is do-able, and they are things we should do – after all, we are at particular risk from climate change, living in a flat, low-lying county criss-crossed by rivers.