The Anonymous Widower

Sustrans and the Cambridge Busway

When the Department of Transport report into the Cambridge Busway was published it contained these paragraphs in the section of the busway’s supporters.

Sustrans supports the guided bus project. Moreover, with its associated maintenance track it offers great potential benefits for cyclists and walkers. The route is expected to form part of the National Cycle Network and this is welcomed.

The maintenance track surface should be tarmac or equivalent throughout. There is a danger that were the surface to deteriorate, people would be tempted to walk or even cycle on the guideway. Access to the stops should focus on the public walking and cycling there. This necessitates a network of high-quality feeder paths to be constructed at the same time as the busway. More thought needs to be given to crossing details for cyclists, walkers and horse riders.

It would be desirable for the buses to employ hybrid drives to allow electric operation within the City area. Also, the buses should have the capability to carry cycles.

I suspect that they would be very interesting in the picture I put up in Paddling the Guided Busway. To get round the puddle, I actually crossed the busway twice, which echoes Sustrans’ comments about the deteriorating surface.

They also wanted hybrid buses and the capability to carry cycles.  I don’t think either of these points have been met.

Interestingly, search the Sustrans web site and you will find no mention of the Cambridge Busway at all.  So perhaps, the only reason they supported the busway was because of the promise of a cycle track, which is now more suitable for cyclo-cross. 

I can’t find their comments on it now and would welcome them.  The nearest I can get to a direct quote is this piece from Railway Ramblers.

This is Sustrans’ response in the latest edition of The Hub, its quarterly magazine for supporters: ‘While Sustrans fully supports plans to improve public transport, we do question whether bus routes should be built at the expense of walking and cycling paths. It seems counter intuitive to develop public transport in direct competition with walking and cycling when the aim is to tackle road congestion and greenhouse gas emissions [and rising levels of obesity – Webmaster]. What this trend seems to show is how under-valued walking and cycling are as transport choices in their own right.’ Many share this view. Many also question the wisdom of building guided busways in the first place. Not only are they visually intrusive structures that deploy vast amounts of concrete, but the example now being completed between Cambridge and St. Ives has cost millions of pounds more than reinstating the railway which it replaced.

I’d agree with all that. 

We need good cycling paths everywhere and perhaps a better and much cheaper solution would have been to use the old railway to create a proper cycle path all the way from St. Ives to Cambridge.  In fact I’ve seen comments on the Internet, that the route will be used by cyclists from Histon to get to the Cambridge Science Park. 

But the latter did not need a scheme that is going to cost upwards of a hundred million pounds.

November 19, 2009 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Buses, Cambridge, Cambridge Busway, Cycling, Sustrans