Go Whippet

Go Whippet is a bus operator based in Swavesey, Cambridgeshire. It is a subsidiary of Transit Systems.

History
Whippet Coaches was founded in Huntingdonshire by bicycle salesman Henry Lee in 1919. The first Whippet Coach was converted from an American ambulance.

Originally based in the village of Hilton, they moved into a depot at Fenstanton (by the A14) in 1977. In 2009 the company sold these buildings to Stagecoach in The Fens and moved to a modern depot at Swavesey. In November 2014, the family business was sold to Transit Systems.

Operations
They currently operate a fleet of over 50 vehicles, a mixture of single and double deck buses with around 8 coaches. Local buses are run throughout north Cambridgeshire and the company also operates a number of school and college contracts.

Go Whippet operated some summer only services to the coast. These have been running in various forms from 1957 up to 2013, and ultimately served Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Felixstowe, Clacton-on-Sea and Southend-on-Sea. It also operates services under contract to Tesco in Bar Hill.

The Busway
Go Whippet run service C on The Busway from Somersham to Cambridge centre on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, using four Wright Eclipse bodied Volvo B7RLEs. This is being run in conjunction with Stagecoach in Huntingdonshire (who run routes A & B) who collectively have exclusive use of the route for a period of five years in exchange for providing a minimum service frequency between the times of 07:00 and 19:00 each week day. Whippet spent a total of £420,000 on three buses (£140,000 each).

In January 2010, the contractors and members of Cambridgeshire County Council were still in discussion about what required finishing. During February 2010 the directors of both the signed up bus operators—Andy Campbell of Stagecoach in Cambridge, and Peter Lee of Go Whippet—both expressed their companies' frustrations at the busway not being usable for the new buses they had bought to run on it. The service finally started on 7 August 2011.

Go Whippet launched a new bus service route U (for Universal) in Cambridge in July 2016, running from Madingley Road Park & Ride to Addenbrooke's Hospital. It is subsidised by the University of Cambridge. It replaced the Uni4 service, formerly operated by Stagecoach in Cambridge. The route between Cambridge Railway Station and Addenbrooke's will be diverted via The Busway by the end of 2016, after delivery of new single-deck buses fitted for use on the guided busway.