Buses, Trains and Walking
On Wednesday, I needed to get from Aldgate to Piccadilly Circus, so I took a bus. In London, you just look at the list of places on the shelter and then find out, which stop in the area is the one you want. In this case, I was lucky as it was the same shelter, but usually, it’s only a walk of a couple of metres. I think I waited perhaps a minute before my 15 bus arrived. I have a free pass, as I’m over sixty, so it was just a matter of showing the card, climbing upstairs and finding a seat. As I get tired, I find that buses are a convenient place to sit in towns like London. After a brief rest, I arrived at my destination.
Similarly, the trains are now pretty comfortable and for my journey home, after a second bus ride to Kings Cross, I was able to get a seat. As the train was busy, First Capital Connect were employing a firm lady to organise everybody in the carriage. We do things differently here to Japan, but she had the same effect, as she got everybody sitting orderly, by eliminating those, who feel that they are entitled to two seats.
I was quite refreshed by Cambridge, before my transfer to the train for Newmarket. There was a bit of hassle, as I had to exit the station to get another ticket, rather than purchase it on the train. They have now installed gates at Cambridge to clamp down on fare dodging, but they’ve also made it difficult to say go to the M&S in the station to get your supper, whilst you are waiting for your connection. They should think these things through properly.
I don’t really have a problem with walking, but where I was in London wasn’t too well provided with places to sit, to get the rest I need to take. So in some ways, I thought that it might be better to use my pass and just sit in a bus.
But at least I know I can manage!
Cambridge Park and Ride
It looks like Cambridge are going to change the charging structure on the park and ride for the city, according to this report. If they do charge for parking as well, they will be going against what was said on Radio 5 some months ago. Then, it was said, that those parking and cycling were welcomed and that they took traffic off the roads in the congested city.
I have used the park and ride, usually to go to the centre for shopping or perhaps to see a film. As I have a bus pass, I don’t pay anything, so if they charged for parking, would those over sixty like me still use it. After all, Bury St. Edmunds has fairly low car park charges at certain times and it is just as close to me.
I also use the park and ride near to Addenbrookes and then walk in or take the free-for-me shuttle bus. This is cheaper than parking at the hospital and actually gets you conveniently closer to out-patients, than the car park. If I walk, as I do in the sun, it can also be argued that it is good for me.
If they do charge for parking or make it that parking includes the bus fare, it will be a sad day and except for Addenbrookes, I will cut my visits to the city.
I suppose though, Cambridge has to fund the busway somehow!
Another Problem for the Cambridge Busway
It looks like it was only a small tree, but this report shows another problem for the Cambridge Busway.
It looks like it was only a small tree, but after all the other faults, problems and just bad design, it illustrates, that this busway, must rank as the worst-planned and designed transport project in the UK and perhaps even Europe.
Will we ever get to use it to vitis the birds at DraytonLakes.
Victoria Line Delay
Yesterday, I left Selfridges about five with the intention of getting to Blackhorse Road by five-thirty and home in time to see England play South Africa in the Twenty20 World Cup.
But I hadn’t bargained on the signalling problems that happened at Seven Sisters, that effectively meant that no trains could run through.
Now one of the things that works on public transport in London is that there are a lot of different ways to get from A to C, even if doesn’t mean going by B.
Eventually we gave up at Euston, where we had sat for about five minutes. The driver had told us to try to find alternative routes, but to get to the further parts of the Victoria Line is not easy. Especially as the Circle Line to Liverpool Street was shut as it was being upgraded. Why Liverpool Street? You can get a Chingford train to St. James Street in Walthamstow.
I was talking to an Aussie, who wanted to get to Pickett’s Lock, where he had planted his tent for about three pounds a day. That must be the cheapest bed in London, although these days it must be pretty cold. But then he was going walking near Inverness and was wearing shorts on quite a cold day. I was actually wearing a T-shirt under my shirt!
So we legged it and immediately caught a Northern Line train to Kings Cross St. Pancras. A long walk through that station brought us to the Piccadilly Line, where we immediately caught a train towards Finsbury Park, where the aim was to see if we could get a bus towards Seven Sisters and Blackhorse Road. Or in fact rejoin the Victoria Line, but that now not running at all.
It was there that I made my first mistake. All the world and his wife seemed to have the same idea and masses were scrambling towards the exit and the buses.
So it was back down to the Piccadilly Line and back on the next train to Manor House.
We were in luck and a few minutes later we were on a 279 bus to Tottenham Hale for myself and all the way to Edmonton Green for my travelling companion. He would be exactly where he wanted to be and I would be a short bus ride away from the Lotus Elan at Blackhorse Road. Note that buses are so much better today, now that they actually tell you where they are going!
It was all very complicated, but at least I had a someone pleasant to talk to. I arrived about forty minutes later than I would have done directly by tube.
Incidentally, one thing that was very good was the attitude of London Transport staff. My companion’s tickets didn’t work the barriers as his was just a simple return, but they just waved him through.
The whole journey could have been one hell of a lot worse!
They Still Can’t Get the Project Management Right
Summer is coming, although you wouldn’t believe it yet. But it will come and the new Cambridge Busway seems as far away as ever.
According to this article, they can’t even get reports on what is to be done, delivered on time.
Busway Humour – 2
There’s nothing like putting the boot into a project that has its troubles. So it is no surprise that the Cambridge Busway is the butt of humour in the Cambridge Evening News.
Dinosaur bones have been discovered on the guided busway – and tourist chiefs hope it could lead to the scheme becoming a major tourism attraction.
It’s not as funny as their previous attempt.
An Interesting Talk
This talk is a must, How to Build the Cambridge Guided Busway.
Construction firm BAM Nuttall will hold a talk later this month called How to Build the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway.
The project’s construction manager John Ely will give a lecture at the Double Tree Hotel, in Milton Keynes, on March 30 at 6.30pm.
I think I’ll go. It would a good place to vent my anger on life in general.
Do We have a Date for the Cambridge Busway?
Possibly?
Or at least mid-April seems to be suggested in this article.
But Cllr Roy Pegram, cabinet member for growth, infrastructure and strategic planning, told a cabinet meeting at Shire Hall today that the stand-off could be at an end thanks to a meeting between the council and BNL.
He said: “The meeting was productive and actions have been agreed by both parties, commencing with early technical meetings this week, which if carried through, should lead to the resolution of the issues.“Provided there is the expected progress during the coming weeks, both parties are hopeful that it will be possible to indicate by the middle of April the target date for trialling and then operating the busway.”
Why Guided Bus?
Go to the Guided Bus page in Wikipedia and there is a list of guided bus systems around the world.
There aren’t many and what you notice is that about half have been discontinued; Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Mannheim for a start. So why were these systems discontinued? You can’t be sure, but some were short distance systems to get round bottlenecks, but probably they just didn’t get the ridership they needed, that justified the system.
So why is the government pushing guided bus?
I don’t know.
If we take the Cambridge system, it is now so over budget and late that no matter what happens, it will not be a financial success. It is a classic project that really has failed because of poor specification and bad project management. I would love to have one of my Artemis mates look at all the details. Big George would have a field day. But then so did Atkins.
Perhaps with hindsight, we should have designed a completely different system.
Cambridge’s biggest transport problem for those like me, who live outside the city is Addenbrooke’s Hospital. I have gone a lot recently and although the multi-story car park usually has spaces, it is expensive. But how else can you provide space for everyone who works there and has to visit?
However, the railway passes to the rear of the hospital on land that will eventually be developed as a large medical campus to compliment one of the best hospitals in the world. So why haven’t they for a start created a proper transport interchange there with a new Addenbrooke’s station and lots of parking for the hospital, park and ride to the city and those that want to catch the train.
Note that, it is virtually impossible for people like me to catch the train to London from Cambridge as car parking is bad in the city. So I usually drive to London. That is bad for all sorts of reasons. Remember too, that with the completion of the Hitchin flyover and other measures capacity on the Cambridge London line will be increased.
I have also been an advocate of another station at Chestert0n Sidings to serve the Science Park and the north of Cambridge. The two stations should probably be linked by a tram, or dare I say it a guided bus, going through the city. The trouble is that fitting it through would be difficult unless it ran with all the other traffic. But it has been done successfully in other cities all over the world. On the other hand if a tram run through the city every five to eight minutes from large car parks how many people would still want to take cars into the city?
But it won’t be done! Certainly not now!
Blunt from Bluntisham
I don’t normally print articles in full from other publications, but this one from Fred King in the Hunts Post deserves to shown almost in full.
Maths was never my strongest subject but I do know what two plus two equals, and judging by the figures for the Guided Bus that have been banded about by Cambridgeshire County Council finance officers, I have my doubts that they do.
The original estimate for the Busway was £116million, £92m from the Government and £24m from the developers of Northstowe (don’t hold your breath as no houses have been built yet).
There is an overspend – all parties agree on this – and the council is set to borrow £40m this year to cover this. What was not widely published is that they will borrow a further £10m next year to pay the contractors, and I understand that the final bill for the Busway will be £161m. Bearing in mind that none of the predicted £24m from the developers has materialised that leaves £69m to recover.
I am not conversant in commercial law but it seems strange to me that a client pays a bill in full and then has to resort to legal action to recover part of that sum back from the contractor.
However robust the council thinks its contract is, I have my doubts.
Despite the council saying that the Busway will cost the ratepayer nothing it will be interesting to see how much the rates increase in the future.
The letter writer was from Bluntisham.
And the government is thinking of building some more of these busways. Surely, if they were that good, there would be busways everywhere.
The Anonymous Widower 