St Neots to Stevenage and St Ives- Traffic and area

[Jessalines]

Hi everyone!
I may be getting a good career opportunity in St Ives and my Other half works in Stevenage so the logistics of this can be hard!

We've seen St Neots is a decent drive away from both Stevenage and St Ives so it could work, but normally (non covid times) how bad is traffic? Ive been told the A1 can be a pain!

And is St Neots a nice area to live and safe? No kids yet, early 20s couple.

Trying to get a better picture to see if we could make it work!

Really appreciate your time and comments, thank you so much.

St Neots is nice enough, I live between there and Cambridge and it's a bit rougher than Cambridge, but also a nice community feel (from their local junior parkrun anyway!). Nice though high Street.

Traffic is pretty bad but if you factor it in its similar to most places.

@fitzbilly Thank you, really appreciate it. Good to hear its not too bad as it fits our budget!
That is true! Do you happen to know how the journey down to Stevenage or St Ives is? Thanks :)

I live in stevenage and had to drive to St Neots for 3 weeks for a training course, this was quite a few years back so before COVID and traffic going to St Neots in the morning was fine, but there always seem to be loads of traffic going in the opposite direction. Same on the way home, no traffic towards stevenage but loads in the opposite direction. It was a lot of traffic but moving at a steady rate if you know what I mean.
So driving to stevenage in the morning and driving back in the evening, yes you will get traffic.
But it's quite an easy drive and not really a long drive, I don't think rush hour would add too much time to the journey.
Hopefully someone will come along who actually makes that journey and can help a bit more.

I used to do Biggleswade to Stevenage as my regular commute. St Neots is a bit further North from Biggleswade so a longer journey. If I left home before 7.45am, I could be lucky and be in Stevenage in about 30 mins. Any later, I’d hit traffic so 45-60 would be more usual.

Coming home, if I left it late enough (after 7.00pm), I could be home in 20 mins but normal commute times, again 45-60 mins.

Unfortunately, the A1 does seem to be a road prone to accidents and approx once every month or so, I’d be sitting there for hours. Same with bad weather.

I was lucky to live and work just off the A1 so not much additional cross-town driving. Stevenage, you will crawl through town at rush hours.

I’m not sure how much further from Biggleswade to St Neots. Not far, I don’t think, but the Black Cat roundabout (Bedford junction) is an accident black spot.

I just want to add that St Ives is absolutely lovely and I have family whose children are very happy at Thorndown Primary.

Have you considered using the train. St Neots to Stevenage is about 20 mins.

The A1 is awful at peak times towards Stevenage. The train service is fast though and some of the larger companies run a shuttle service to the station. Have never lived in St Neots but the town centre seems quite nice.

@ButterfliesandMoths thank you that is really helpful!

@HeddaGarbled thank you very much! That gives us a great idea of what the journey would be like! Really appreciate it

@sma1978 and @ElephantsNest we have looked at the train, only thing was that it works out more expensive than driving though there is no traffic, definitely an options

Until last year I lived about 5 miles south of St Neots, I did a school run for 5 years to Letchworth which is a town north of Stevenage.
The traffic slowly got worse, but I can say for sure if you decide to do this you will always have traffic at The Black Cat Roundabout and on the A1 going south it will be heavy from Letchworth to Stevenage.
The traffic around Stevenage is bad going north and south all throughout rush our/school times, there is just too much traffic and no other roads.
It would be much easier on the train, my DH got the train daily from Sandy (station after st Neots towards Stevenage) it’s a good service and he always got a seat but it is expensive, but would be so much quicker.
I’m a bit lukewarm about St Neots, the middle of town is ok, along the river is nice but it’s surrounded by housing estates, there’s another massive new one being built on the Cambridge road (so much new housing being built in the Bedfordshire/Cambridge borders).
I think St Ives is nicer but it’s further from Stevenage.
Incase you don’t know there are several large road/rail plans planned for the area, one is making the road to Cambridge all dual carriageway (which will be great in the long term but disruptive) and secondly the East/West rail line which will connect Oxford- Cambridge, the final route is either just being finalised or has just been (sorry not sure as we’ve moved) but it will have a big impact if it connects St Neots to Cambridge by train, obviously it will take years to complete but will have an overall impact on the area.

I used to work in Welwyn Garden City, we live near Huntingdon. I commuted by train. The A1 is awful at prime commuting times. St Ives is a much nicer place to live than St Neots.

@Itscoldouthere thank you very much, that is so helpful! It does sound like if we were to go ahead, that the train would be the quickest option, probably less stressful too! Thanks for the information, that is really useful to know, appreciate it! Thanks once again that will give us a lot to consider :)

@Alsohuman thank you, it does sound the train would be the best bet so to avoid a1!

The thing is St Neots is a bit grim. The high st is dying and its full of charity shops and hairdressers. Have you visited the town op?

It has a newish cinema thats nice but not much more.
St. Ives has character and lots of independent shops

We live in St Neots. My daughter and son in law on Loves farm, which is new builds. She works in Stevenage and sometimes drives sometimes uses the train. She finds it OK which ever. I work in St Ives and live Eaton Socon, which is the other side of St Neots. My journey is about 30 minutes and very straight forward. We like St Neots and the fact everywhere is easily accessible. Shopping in Peterborough or Cambridge. Loads of lovely villages close by. The town is a bit down at the moment but hopefully will improve after covid. Good luck with your move.

@ihatethecold We haven't visited yet, just looks convinient to travel to both Stevenage and St Ives so thought we would check first and depending on the answers go down a few times to get a feel for the town. St Ives would have been perfect if it had a train station as driving from St Ives to Stevenage is a bit of a stretch. Thank you for your answer!

@Mojitomumma thank you very much, that sounds promising and gives us a good idea of the travel in both directions, many thanks!