A KEY bus route from Fenland to London is to be scrapped - with a new service to bypass stops at Chatteris and March in favour of a quicker journey.

National Express’ 010 service, which runs from King’s Lynn to London, calling at Wisbech, March, Chatteris, Huntingdon and Cambridge, is to be replaced by a new 446 coach, which will only call at Wisbech and Peterborough before arriving in the capital.

Next month’s changes will cut the journey time by around 25 minutes but they have sparked anger amongst passengers in March and Chatteris who rely on the current service.

March resident Judy Rogers, 74, has been travelling on the coach with her husband since she moved to the area in 1999.

She said: “They’re writing us off. There’s normally a good number of people on that bus and we will certainly miss it. We are not getting any younger and it just means we will have to make an extra journey.

“It’s a route that we take for granted and for people of our age group it’s going to be a hard push to make it to Wisbech. It just seems all wrong - a lot of people care about this service.”

A National Express spokesman said: “Two major benefits result from this change including a new direct link to Peterborough and a quicker journey time to London. We do apologise to those who will be affected by the coach no longer serving Cambridge.

“We do not take these decisions lightly but passenger numbers to Cambridge have declined during the past few years. The vast majority of passengers use the service to London and the improvement in journey time has already been welcomed.”

The changes come into place on May 16. The new coach will depart from the Kings Lynn Vancouver Centre Bus Station at 0720 calling at Wisbech (0740), Peterborough (0835), London Golders Green (1035), London Marble Arch (1110) and London Victoria (1120).

The return coach will depart from London Victoria at 1730 arriving into Peterborough at 1955 and Kings Lynn at 2110.