Stagecoach’s View on the Cambridge Busway
I took this picture yesterday.
Will I be on the busway soon?
A Slow Bus from Cambridge to Ipswich
After the film, I did a bit of window shopping in Cambridge and then had lunch in Carluccio’s before catching the four o’clock bus to Haverhill, where I was going to get the coach at six o’clock to Ipswich for the football.
The weather was atrocious and it was almost pleasant to be at the front on the top of a warm 13 bus, as it meandered its way through the villages to Haverhill. At least, I had a little shelf in front of me, which allowed me to do the Sudoku.
Haverhill though is not the place to spend an hour at five ‘oclock on a very wet Tuesday afternoon. There was no cafe open and the one or two pubs that were looked very much like the places I would only visit in direst need. The rain looked friendlier! I walked up to Tesco’s as I needed a banana and a juice with which to take my Warfarin. They did have single bananas, but I couldn’t find any small drinks of juice or smoothies. As everything was in litre bottles or larger, I decided that it would be better to try elsewhere. I got what I wanted in the Co-op. But they didn’t have a gluten-free section, so my thought of buying a packet of suitable biscuits went out the window. Tesco’s did have a gluten-free section, but it was rather poor, with no nice biscuits. I did ask in the Co-op about gluten-free and they said it had been successful, so they stopped it.
So supper consisted of some sandwiches, I’d made before I left, some chocolate, a smoothie, a banana and a 5mg. Warfarin tablet.
The coach from Haverhill to Ipswich was probably the fastest part of the journey as the weather seemed to have kept the crowd very much below what I would have expected.
The Cambridge Busway Approaches the Station
As I retirned to the station on the top deck of the bus, I was able to get a good view of the busway as it approached the station from the south, alongside the railway lines to London.
Cambridge Busway to the South of the Station
If it ever gets finished it will make getting to Addenbrooke’s from the station a lot easier.
But then they have to finish the bridge, which should have been completed months ago.
More Delays for the Busway
The sign says that there will be delays until well into the New Year!
It’s not just the quality of the planning on this important project that worries me, it’s the attention to detail in the design and the defects that seem to keep arising. As I said before this project was designed for the lawyers.
Over the Sea From Skye
The bus took a more or less direct route between Kyle of Lochalsh to Arnadale with a small detour to Broadford to put down and pick up passengers.
It was my first time on Skye since about 1972. Then we had all come, with our three boys crammed in the back of our 1969 Porsche 911T. Strangely the car still exists and is in New Zealand. But a picture of the car is the only one of the holiday.
Porsche 911T on Skye
That Porsche 911T was the first performance car we had and we acquired it for £1650 courtesy of a loan from my favourite bank manager, David.
I remember for that holiday we left early in the morning from the Barbican and first stop was Gretna Green at about 7:30 in the morning. So when people say I push myself, it’s nothing new in my book.
We stayed somewhere north of Portree and I remember that we were greeted on the doorstep by a dead sheep. It was nothing against holiday homes or anything sinister, but just an inconvenient expiry. In the end we got the Police, who found who owned it and it was quietly disposed of.
I also remember we hurried off the island and I can still remember hurtling up Glencoe towards Glasgow, which we achieved at an average speed of about 80 mph. Or that’s what I claimed at the time! But it was certainly fast on an almost empty road.
The detour to Broadford reminded me that in 1975, the village had an airstrip. C said that next time we came we’d fly! I doubt I will and she sadly can’t!
I went straight to Arnadale and immediately got the ferry to Mallaig.
Arnadale to Mallaig Ferry
Bad Driving
There has been a lot of reports about the reasons why people drive badly today. Various solutions are being proposed including restrictions on young drivers.
I have driven for many years, but don’t now and I may never do again. But I’m happy to use buses and trains, with lifts to the nearest station.
I sometimes think that the reason we have a lot of bad driving is because people are pressured to use their cars, by lifestyle, family or jobs.
Let’s look at some categories, who get blamed for bad driving and accidents.
- Young drivers often have no other means, except a battered car to get to work or have a night out. It will be interesting to see if things like the new East London Line and the extensions to the Manchester Tram, actually cut accidents involving young drivers, as they take quality public transport instead.
- Elderly drivers who won’t give up their car, as they need it for the shops etc. You see quite a few round here, who should not drive. But there is no alternative.
- Company car drivers, who feel pressured to use the car, rather than perhaps take the train. How many companies refuse train expenses to people with company cars?
- And what about wives who are pressured to drive their husbands after a good meal out!
I have recently seen a change in that some people I know have swapped their cars for trains on longer journeys.
This needs to be encouraged, by more comfortable trains, better stations, more parking at stations, better connections and perks like free WiFi. I know of one person, who now commutes to his office in the nearest big city by bus because of the WiFi.
One thing that is accelerating change to rail and bus is Railcards and passes, as I found on my trip to Great Yarmouth.
By Coach to the Football at Ipswich
Tuesday’s match against QPR is best forgotten and I did think about abandoning my trip to see Ipswich host Cardiff today. But in the end I took the Supporter’s Club coach from Haverhill. And very comfortable and sociable it was too!
The only problem was crossing to Tesco’s in Haverhill after being dropped at the bus station, so that I could get my supper. You just had to brave the traffic as the crossing was in the wrong place. But then supermarkets aren’t designed to be accessed on foot, as the average person can’t carry much!
But I did come quickly in a taxi!
Is Lincolnshire a Nanny State?
This story, about a father being threatened with action because his seven-year old daughter walk twenty metres to the bus stop to go to school is ridiculous.
At the age of six or seven in the early 1950s, I used to be taken to the bus stop at Oakwood by my mother to catch the 107 bus to Enfield for piano lessons with my Aunt Mabel. I had my couple of pence for the ticket and used to sit in one of the back three seats by the conductor. When I got to the stop just past Enfield Town station, I would get off and run down to my aunt’s. It should also be said that my aunt didn’t have a phone at the time. Were my family responsible or not? Perhaps, my illnesses are all down to letting me look after myself from an early age!
An Express Return to Suffolk
I must admit, I did leave a few minutes before the end of the match, but time was tight, if I was to make my taxi home, as he had a later booking to collect someone from Gatwick.
So by 17:14, I was on a London train out of Fratton station.
Waterloo to Liverpool Street is one of those journeys that isn’t the best on the Underground. You can change from Northern to Central at Tottenhsm Court Road, but because I had my case with me, I’d found out before that there was a direct bus; the 26, which stops just outside the back entrance to Waterloo and goes directly to Liverpool Street. It was a good choice, especially as it dropped me at the Bishopsgate entrance at Liverpool Street. I just had time to purchase a ticket from a machine that worked, unlike at Whittlesford, and then board the train.
Admittedly, it was a few minutes late into the station, but the taxi was there and I was watching the television by a quarter to nine. So it was about three and a half hours door-to-door!
London Buses
In the two and a half days or so, that I spent in London, I used the buses a lot. They worked well, especially, as the information at stops, generally allows you to choose the right bus for your journey with ease. There is one thing, that I’d like to see and that is some form of route map actually on the buses, so that if you are unfamiliar with the route, you can make the right decision about which stops to use. I think this is often brought about, by the fact that I’m unable to recognise where I am from the lower deck of a bus.
But I can still use the top deck, as this picture of the inside of a Routemaster on Route 15 shows.
Top Deck of a Routemaster
Stranglely as a child, I didn’t travel on these iconic buses very often, as they weren’t introduced into the suburbs, like Cockfosters where I lived, until after I left. The first place I saw them was at Wood Green, where they replaced the trolley buses.
But when C and our young family lived in St. John’s Wood, we used them extensively to get around London. It may surprise people to read that we could manage three small children and a large double pushchair with ease on these buses. But then in those days, it was either use the bus or walk! Or in C’s case push!
I should say that on my trip from Trafalgar Square to St. Pauls on the Routemaster, I had no difficulties with the stairs. So that was another victory against the Devil!
Doubts About Guided Busways
Over the last few months, I have been watching the progress, or should that be non-progress, of the Cambridge Busway with interest. Now one of the transport experts from Salford University, Richard Knowles, has been very forthright about the project and another busway proposed for Greater Manchester. His views are in this report on the BBC.
This is an extract.
“The idea is a good one,” he added, “but guided busways have always been promoted on the basis that they’re a lot quicker and cheaper to build than light rail systems.
“However, in Cambridgeshire, it’s 10 years since the multi-modal study recommended it and the budget at that time was half what it looks like it’s going to cost, and it’s well out of time.
“The contract was let in 2006. It’s now 2010 and it’s still not open.”
Prof. Knowles said the Cambridgeshire guided bus scheme was “a guinea pig”.
“It’s the national trial project, if you like, for guided busways.
“This is why the government put a huge amount of money into it, because it is the pilot project for guided busways in Britain.
“So other guided busway schemes clearly want to see what happens in Cambridgeshire and learn the lessons.”
It’s a pity for Cambridge, that the guinea pig wasn’t some other council.
In fact, I needed the busway today, as I had to get from the city centre to Addenbrookes. So I had to get a normal bus, which incidentally was very convenient and reliable.
The Anonymous Widower 