U Bus student campaign relaunches with proposed SU Motion

Project U, a student-led campaign to extend the U Bus Route to cover Girton & Homerton, has proposed a motion to the Cambridge SU who will hear the matter on Monday (07/02), before voting on it, later this month. 

The campaign, which launched in January, following two previous campaigns over the last 6 years, claims the University has failed to properly support disabled students at Girton and Homerton through the Universal Bus route and aims to challenge this. This third wave of campaigners claims that despite the recommendations of working groups and agreements with the University’s Planning & Resources Committee (PRC), no real changes have been seen. 

The proposed SU Motion, if successfully passed, would resolve “to lobby the University and PRC to alter the U-Bus route.” The document once voted on, would mean that the SU would assert “that disabled students at Girton and Homerton have continued to be sidelined” and “all students have a right to access their offsite lectures, extracurriculars and social activities with as few barriers as possible.”

Co-project leader and Girton JCR Vice-President, Harry Goolnik, spoke to the Tab about his reasons for rebooting the campaign. He pointed towards one of the campaign’s Instagram posts which claims that Go Whippet, the bus provider, is incorrect in its claim that “The University Bus is for everyone,” since “the absence of Homerton and Girton on the U Bus route is exclusionary and goes against notions of accessibility, especially for our disabled communities.”

Harry explained how the initial 2016 campaign led by members of the Homerton JCR and the Girton JCR-led campaign in 2020 had led him to believe that real progress was being made with altering the U Bus route. 

However, despite the SU voting to support a previous motion in support of the movement and an external consultation in 2020 which suggested adding Girton and Homerton main sites to the U-Bus route, no changes have since been made to the regular bus route.

In fact, in October 2020, the PRC extended the existing U-Bus contract by another 12 months to July 2022, and by another year to July 2023 in June 2021. Project U claims that neither Girton nor Homerton Colleges were notified of these delays when they occurred. The document being proposed to the SU claims that “the PRC is taking advantage of natural inconsistency due to yearly terms and changeover on various student bodies.”

Upon learning all this, Harry was moved to set up this project as a collaboration between Girton and Homerton students. He said that this time around the project was committed to “transparency” in a bid to spark “real action from the university.”

The proposed SU motion would resolve, if passed, to “actively support and promote campaigns to extend the U-Bus route” and “routinely report back to Girton and Homerton students with regards to progress”. They would write to the outgoing and incoming Vice-Chancellors asking for support on this matter as well as lobbying college JCRs/MCRs and college senior leads to support the campaign. 

When approached for comment, a University Spokesperson said:

“The University continues to work to meet the access requirements of all students, including those in colleges not currently served by the Universal bus route. A number of discussions had taken place prior to the COVID-19 outbreak with senior members of the Girton and Homerton JCRs, in particular, and a strategy – incorporating the University’s commitment to green transport, based on electric vehicles with good accessibility criteria – was being developed for providing a service after the existing contract with Whippet expired.

“Regrettably, the pandemic and the ongoing driver shortage have presented significant challenges for the forward planning of transport and as a result, the Planning and Resources Committee (PRC) has decided to extend the existing Whippet contract for an additional 12-month period to July 2023 and to review the position at that point.

“The Committee recognised that this would not address the issues raised by students, and agreed that it would be appropriate to allocate funds to support alternative arrangements pending agreement of a new, long-term contract. We continue to explore other options for providing additional connectivity for Colleges and Departments not served by the Universal.”

Roger Birch, General Manager at Whippet said

“As we provide the Universal bus service on behalf of the University, we work with the University to deliver the bus service that the University desires.

 “The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has rewritten the guidebook on the provision of bus services across the UK, and the new normal is not yet known.  Had it not been for the University’s support, both morally and financially, there would more than likely have been a complete withdrawal of the Universal bus service during the high points of the pandemic.  Instead, we were able to provide services to essential workers, providing free ticketing to both NHS and University essential workers over the height of the pandemic, and were able to provide a similar level of service throughout this time.

“Following the temporary closure of the Busway between the Biomedical Campus and the rail station, the Universal bus is now serving Homerton College on a one-way loop and passengers from there can now avail themselves of the service.

 Bus services are provided to both Homerton and Girton by Stagecoach with fully accessible vehicles, linking both sites with key locations throughout the city.  A further service is provided between Homerton, the City Centre and Madingley Road by ourselves where the day, week and 4 week tickets can reduce ticketing costs to £1 per day, saving money on the £1 one way tickets available to University students and staff.”

Project U’s motion will be discussed at Student Council on Monday (07/02). You find more information on the campaign over on their Instagram (@projectu2022).

Cambridge SU were also contacted for comment.

Feature Image Credit: Project U