 | |
 | |
| Parent | Ascendal Group |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1919 |
| Headquarters | Swavesey |
| Service area | Cambridgeshire |
| Service type | Bus services and Flixbus |
| Routes | X2, X3, 18, 18A, 66, Universal |
| Destinations | Cambridge Huntingdon St Neots Cambourne |
| Fleet | 40 |
| Website | www.whippetbus.co.uk |
Whippet is a bus and coach operator based inSwavesey,Cambridgeshire, England.[1] It is part of theAscendal Group.[2]
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Whippet Coaches was founded inHuntingdonshire by bicycle salesman Henry Lee in 1919. The first Whippet coach was converted from an American ambulance.[3]
Originally based in the village of Hilton, they moved into a depot atFenstanton in 1977. In 2009 the company moved to a depot atSwavesey, where they remain today.
In November 2014, the business was sold toTransit Systems, the parent company of London bus companyTower Transit.[4][5] In October 2018, Go Whippet was sold to theAscendal Group, owned by Tower Transit's former CEO Adam Leishman.[6][7]
Whippet used to operate some summer-only services to the coast. These ran in various forms from 1957 up to 2013, and ultimately servedGreat Yarmouth,Lowestoft,Felixstowe,Clacton-on-Sea andSouthend-on-Sea.
As of October 2024, Whippet has a fleet of 40 vehicles.[8] Buses connect towns and villages inCambridgeshire, includingHuntingdon,St Neots, andCambourne. The company also operates school and college contracts.
Whippet runs the X2, X3, 18, 18A and 66 services in Cambridgeshire.[9]
Whippet launched a new bus service U (forUniversal) inCambridge in July 2016, running originally fromMadingley Road Park & Ride (now:Eddington) viaWest Cambridge toAddenbrooke's Hospital. It is subsidised by theUniversity of Cambridge and replaced the Uni4 service, formerly operated byStagecoach in Cambridge.[10]
In 2023 Whippet was granted a new eight year contract to continue running the service. All of the service's nineMellor Sigma 12 buses are fully electric.[11]
Whippet was awarded a contract with intercity coach companyFlixBus in 2021 to run long-distance coach services. Currently Whippet operate 14 coaches for FlixBus, running toBradford,Leeds,Manchester, Cambridge,Birmingham andLondon in the UK andAmsterdam,Paris on international routes.[12]
In 2024 Whippet launched the first 100% electric long-distance coach in partnership with FlixBus and Zenobē.[13] TheYutong GTe14 runs on the route between Cambridge and London.[14]
From 7 August 2011 until 9 November 2018, Whippet operated service C onCambridgeshire Guided Busway fromSomersham to Cambridge city centre on the section betweenSt Ives and theCambridge Science Park. This was being run in conjunction withStagecoach in the Fens (who ran routes A and B) who jointly with Whippet had exclusive use of the route for a period of five years in exchange for providing a minimum service frequency between 07:00 and 19:00 each weekday.[15] Whippet spent a total of £420,000 on threePlaxton Centro bodiedVolvo B7RLE buses[16] that have been sold since and replaced by fourWright Eclipse bodied Volvo B7RLEs. Service C was withdrawn on 9 November 2018, leaving all bus operations on the northern section of the guided busway toStagecoach East and ending Whippet's services in the St. Ives area.[17][18]
In addition to services C and U, in February 2019, Whippet launched a service P (forPedigree), using the B7RLEs which previously operated on the C, between Cambridge City Centre and Addenbrooke's via the Guided Busway, thus duplicating Stagecoach's A and D services on this section. Service P lasted six months before being withdrawn in August 2019.[19]
Media related toGo Whippet at Wikimedia Commons