The 16-mile guided busway from Cambridge to Huntingdon has been officially handed over to Cambridgeshire County Council by contractors BAM Nuttall, just over 2 years late: bit.ly/huaNmd
The handover has been hailed as the latest step towards a projected opening date as early as August 2011 unless any serious defects are discovered. Costs for the scheme have run 50% over budget.
Official Busway website:
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/transport/thebusway/
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The ESSEN one mentioned was later converted into a tramway.
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I still don't see the point, why do you need to guide a bus, its not as tho you have sacked the driver. Its not guided over all the route, so why does it need to be guided along some of it?
How much cheaper would a section of road have been that was designated "bus only"?
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...I still don't see the point...
There are lots of advantages, to name but a few:
100 per cent compliance - other traffic cannot drive on it, delivery drivers cannot park on it.
No enforcement needed so no enforcement costs - cameras, wardens etc.
No parking and encroachment means 100 per cent reliable journey times and timetables - an overall better service.
Better service means higher take up.
The guided route does not have to be as wide - less land under Tarmac.
More here:
www.britpave-bus-rail.org.uk/busway/why-build-busway.html
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>> ...I still don't see the point...
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>> There are lots of advantages, to name but a few:
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>> 100 per cent compliance - other traffic cannot drive on it, delivery drivers cannot park
>> on it.
You have a tag operated gate or bollard
>> No enforcement needed so no enforcement costs - cameras, wardens etc.
You have a tag operated gate or bollard
>> No parking and encroachment means 100 per cent reliable journey times and timetables - an
>> overall better service.
You have a tag operated gate or bollard
>> Better service means higher take up.
You have a tag operated gate or bollard
>> The guided route does not have to be as wide - less land under Tarmac.
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>> More here:
>>
>> www.britpave-bus-rail.org.uk/busway/why-build-busway.html
Thats a company that builds busways.
Financially, it just does not wash. Not by a long way.
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They're going to build another in Luton, on another disused rail track!
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Zero - it's what local authorities do when they're refused the cash for a proper tram, so they decide to squander millions on a pretend tram instead out of petulance. Leeds did the same thing.
The little wheels that stick out from the sides of the buses there are at exactly the right height to amputate your feet if you stand too close to the pavement as the bus pulls in.
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I've been watching this from a local perspective since the planning stage. A complete waste of time, effort and money for 95% of the local people in the area. We won't use it, it will not change the slow, packed, accident prone, A14 section from A1 to Cambridge. Even the official stats prediict just a 2.3% net reduction in tarffic.
Only thing it's done is provide copy and letter page fodder for the area's papers each week.
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100% reliability - pah!
Just wait until a bus breaks down, has a puncture or the track is blocked.
Following buses cannot steer around the obstruction. The system fails until the bus is cleared.
The only 100% thing about these bus ways is the waste of vast amounts of money.
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I can never understand why those who do not have to use public transport are so keen to see it fail.
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Iffy - I don't want it to fail. It's just a blooming waste of money. A simple 8m wide tarmac covered road with restricted access would have done the job just as well at something like 25% of the cost.
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>> Iffy - I don't want it to fail. It's just a blooming waste of money.
>> A simple 8m wide tarmac covered road with restricted access would have done the job
>> just as well at something like 25% of the cost.
>>
Yep, these guided busways really are a monumental waste of money, the same end could be achieved much much cheaper, as Zero has pointed out.
The misguided busway in Luton BT mentions has required the demolition of several railway bridges, hence destroying any chance of a future heavy rail option. stupid stupid stupid.
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...A simple 8m wide tarmac covered road with restricted access would have done the job just as well at something like 25% of the cost...
Are you certain about that?
Land is very expensive in this country, and less of it is required for the busway.
Drainage is simpler - and cheaper - because there's not so much run-off.
Set against that is the cost of the guiding system.
And where is it written that a public transport service must always take the cheapest option?
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>> Drainage is simpler - and cheaper - because there's not so much run-off.
Its been delayed for so long due to problems with drainage.
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Anti Social Behaviour and late night buses go hand in hand - so there's a kick off on a bus on a busway - how do the Police access the scene ?
Once scorats know that they are untouchable on the thing they'll be like moths to a flame...
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I get night buses all the time although I am getting a bit old for it now and a mate often stays at mine when we go clubbing so can share a taxi.
I don't like night buses because of the drunks but I've never seen any anti social behaviour on them. Seems to be more anti social behaviour on the trams for some reason.
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I have a friend who blogs ob Facebook from central Manchester - she regularly mentions the drunks on the buses as well. She is confined to public transport.
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Depends what you mean by drunks. Different routes have different problems depending on the demographics of the local area. My night bus probably isn't anything like as bad as others. I've never felt threatened or anything but as I have got older I've just not felt as comfortable on night buses. By night buses I am talking about 2:30am sort of times.
By far the worst problem is school kids on buses, but that is something I no longer have to put up with.
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>> I don't like night buses because of the drunks but I've never seen any anti
>> social behaviour on them. Seems to be more anti social behaviour on the trams for
>> some reason.
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Read the post above yours...
''Anti Social Behaviour and late night buses go hand in hand - so there's a kick off on a bus on a busway - how do the Police access the scene ?''
I believe the trams use some of the old railway routes?
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Dunno - no experience of them other than abroad. This Busway things has the hallmarks of a vanity project..
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>> ...A simple 8m wide tarmac covered road with restricted access would have done the job
>> just as well at something like 25% of the cost...
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>> Are you certain about that?
No doubt at all.
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>> Land is very expensive in this country, and less of it is required for the
>> busway.
It's on the already free line of a disused railway.
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>> Drainage is simpler - and cheaper - because there's not so much run-off.
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The drainage has cost an absolute fortune and still isn't completely right !!
>> Set against that is the cost of the guiding system.
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>> And where is it written that a public transport service must always take the cheapest
>> option?
Well - I've got no answer for that. value for my hard earned money, maybe
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>
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>> Drainage is simpler - and cheaper - because there's not so much run-off.
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Drainage would've been simpler and cheaper with a "proper" tramway, as well as being far more environmentally friendly.
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Problem is that it doesn't go to Huntingdon - it goes to St Ives, which is a 30 minute bike ride from Huntingdon.
To use a "guided bus" on the current advertised routes I have to walk 20 minutes to a bus stop or bike to the nearest place to "park" in St Ives.
It takes me between 25 and 45 minutes to drive to work each day and 25-35 to drive home.
On a wet November morning what do you think I would do - even if the bus is "half price" compared to petrol?
I have used the empty bus way to cycle to work a few weeks ago - 20 miles each way that took about 90 minutes.
I would have built a tram - but I lived in Croydon and saw the fantastic success that was. The problem in Huntingdon is getting from the station over the Ouse to the abandoned train track as the A14 is in the way....
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But no-one wants to go from Huntington to Cambridge and back. The A14 is jammed because its a the link between the A14 and the M11 - Most of it is through traffic.
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>>But no-one wants to go from Huntington to Cambridge and back. The A14 is jammed because its a the link between the A14 and the M11 - Most of it is through traffic.
Not sure I agree with you. The M11 does not suffer the same log jam as that stretch of A14 at rush hour, it is the rush into Cambridge and the traffic going M6 to the Eastern docks. What they ought to do is finishing dualling the A428 from Caxton Gibbet to the A1 and make that the "A14" so the HGV traffic goes that way and the light commercial/personal traffic goes up the rubbish A14 (ex A603).
But they won't and in 5 years time we might still be having this conversation.....
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Yeah sorry forgot about Felixstowe, and the fact that 40% - Yes 40% of all he UKs container traffic comes into the docks there and out onto the motorway network along....The scabby A14
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Of all the road improvement projects that the coalition government could have cancelled or modified they went and chose to stop the "scabby A14" upgrade.
Bonkers.
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We shouldn't be worrying about improving the A14 now anyway, as with most British half baked cock ups executed by Bodgit and Scarper it should have been done proper in the first place.
A blind alien would have known that the likely traffic volumes using the whole length of A14 would be far too much for a dual carriageway with (no hard shoulder allowance to poach either) traffic lit roundabouts to cope with, and that idiotic single lane at Cathorpe for which the designer of said junction should still be doing time at Her Maj's pleasure.
All those lettered consultants, kerching, and experts, kerching, hundreds of hours of census', and all it really needed was some bloke with half an ounce of common sense, a pencil above his ear and a fag packet to make notes on.
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Feel strongly about it gb ? :-)
Last edited by: Pugugly on Sun 24 Apr 11 at 20:40
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>> Feel strongly about it gb ? :-)
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It's possible i s'pose..;)
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Interesting thread as there is a guided busway being touted in the West of Greater Manchester.
Most of the comment in the blatts seems to be against it, most folk seem to favour a return to heavy rail or a possible extension of our trams.
It will use the old trackbed of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway's Tyldesley loop line from Leigh towards Salford.
It's not an area I have any reason to go to, so I have no views one way or another. It'll be interesting to see what gets built, if anything.
I have a cousin who lives in Hartford, nr Huntingdon and I've heard from him that there is a lot of negative response from people.
Ted
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Problem with this stretch of the A14 is less the traffic volumes (you could increase road volume by changing the speed limit to 50) but the aqueduct over the East Coast Main Line and Huntingdon station. Stand under it and see the electronic jiggery pokery that is measuring how far it slips each minute and realise that when they say it is past its intended life - it certainly is. That falls down and you have both no A14 and no East Coast line.
Secondary are the Girton and Cathorpe interchanges, each of which are truly dreadful and for no good reason. At least some of the other M way mess (ie - from memory - the M23 which finishes at junction 7 and the M11 which finishes at 4) are caused by NIMBYs and land ownership linked to the aristocracy class rather than rank design stupidity.
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I think it is a viaduct. Same type of problem with the Forth Road Bridge - corrosion and failure of elements of the main suspension cables mean it may have to be closed to HGVs within 4 years. Summary of findings:-
The study concluded that major maintenance works on Forth Road Bridge over a sustained period, involving lane and carriageway closures, would potentially result in:
economic output falling to a level in the order of £1 billion below that anticipated were the bridge to be operating normally
a drop in turnover in excess of £1.3 billion below that anticipated were the bridge to be operating normally
a loss of around 3,200 jobs, some of which may turn out to be permanent.
It should be noted that replacement or augmentation of the main cables will only become necessary if the current scheme to dehumidify the cables fails to prevent further loss of strength.
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>> a projected opening date as early as August 2011
The busway has opened to the public today.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-14401265
www.thebusway.info/
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Just got back from poking about. The Park and ride at Longstanton is a bit, well, shonky, frankly. The main building isn't finished. The toilets are a block of Portaloos. There were eight cars in the car park. There were three people looking about but nobody waiting for a bus. A bus arrived whilst poking about with perhaps 12 people on it. The bike racks will take perhaps twenty bikes.
It's all looking a bit sad, with areas fenced off and heaps of rubble, jcbs and general stuff lying about Still, it's only day one, I didn't go to the other park and rides, and after all at 180 million it's a bargain. They've only had six years to finish it I suppose.
There was some fervently excited reporting in the local news today about the first bus to pull out this morning.
Tomorrow it's the first real day and the first timetable with ten minute services, so be interesting to see what happens in Cambridge rush hour, albeit in school holidays.
Of course, for us, at an eye watering £5.50 each return to travel eight miles, (so 16 miles in all) it's unlikely we'll use it, even though we live about a mile from the park and ride. £11 to get a bus that still gets stuck in Cambridge traffic, or take two of us in the car for about a tenth of that? Hmm...
Last edited by: Crankcase on Sun 7 Aug 11 at 18:17
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Cambridge to Huntingdon busway handed over - jc2
