The Busway Slips to the New Year?
There is a video on this article, where it would appear that the long delayed busway will start services in the New Year.
They should have used some of my software to get it right.
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.
Cynicism About the Cambridge Busway
The Cambridge Evening News has a poll for readers about when the busway will open. Voters are obviously showing a good deal of East Anglian cynicism.
I think it will open in February.
Car Traps on the Cambridge Busway
Because of the design of the Cambridge Busway, cars which have a narrower wheel-track than buses would not be able to run along the track. So a simple trap is placed at each road crossing to stop cars getting on the busway.
Cambridge Busway - Car Trap
The trap will obviously catch a car that shouldn’t be going up the busway. But supposing a driver makes a mistake at a junction in heavy rain and turns up the road, then how long will it take to get a vehicle out?
At least I suppose all the passengers could get out of the bus and push the car away.
Paddling the Guided Busway
Yesterday, I went along the track by the Cambridge Busway at Fen Drayton Lakes, to take a few pictures.
It was lucky that I cycled, as any other mode of transport other than a horse or a canoe, would have meant I’d probably have got very wet.
Flooding on the Cambridge Busway
It prompted me to write a letter to the Cambridge Evening News.
I had an enjoyable day yesterday, cycling at Fen Drayton Lakes using the cycleway alongside the side of the new busway.
What surprised me was that with all the money spent, that they couldn’t get the drainage right. At times there was at least twenty centimetres of water on the cycleway. Perhaps not too bad on a bike, but it would be a real deterrent to walkers.
Surely the success of the busway in every respect, depends on getting all the little details correct!
The Cambridge Busway may well be a needed project, but detailed planning seems to have lacking.
Cambridge Busway Pictures – Swavesey to St. Ives
It was sunnier yesterday, so I took some more pictures of the Cambridge Busway from Swavesey to St. Ives. I actually parked at Fen Drayton Lakes and used my Brompton.
Incidentally Fen Drayton Lakes looked a great place to take a family and with a stop right in the middle, I hope they get the ticketing for families right. It has been reported that the two bus companies will not be allowing interchangeable ticketing.
Pictures for the Cambridge to Swavesey section are shown here.
Cambridge Busway Pictures – Cambridge to Swavesey
The rain was miserable, so I decided to go and photograph the Cambridge Busway. These pictures show the busway from Cambridge to Swavesey.
There are lots of things to note in these pictures.
- The concrete blocks blocking entry to the busway.
- Kids lurking under the bridge at the Histon/Impington stop. Is this an omen?
- The Phoenix Chinese Restaurant at Histon is included because it is very much worth visiting.
- There are horse crossings at many places, with buttons ideally placed for riders. But would I ride a horse alongside a busway, with buses travelling at 80 kph? Probably not, unless it was Cyril, the world’s most bomb-proof horse.
- They have spent a lot of money on a cutting at Over, when there is a hideous mast by a charming wind-mill. Right sentiments but wrong solution. They should have demolished the mast!
- The MG logo on the building at Swavesey.
I said that when I created this gallery, that I would be adding to it. The section from Swavesey to St. Ives is pictured here.
The Late Busway
They’ve just announced on BBC East that the planned opening of the Cambridge Busway on November 29th, may well be put back, as the busway has not been handed over to the operators yet. There is a detailed news item here.
There also seems to be a problem with joy-riders and other low-life on the bus-way. As it runs through open country and is generally unlit, I suspect that all sorts of things will happen.
But I hope not!
Scooters Invade Busway
That sounds like something out of the Zombie Handbook, but it’s a report in the Cambridge Evening News.
I’ve said before that I’m unsure about the busway. I also think that some of the decisions taken about ticketing are quite frankly bonkers.
The busway will probably open before the end of November and I shall ride it to see what it’s like, but I have this awful feeling it will not be a great success.
Bonkers Busway
This article on the Cambridge Evening News is so sad it’s funny.
It’s almost as the fare system for the new busway was designed by a Mr. M. Python.
But rather than one ticket for both services, people can only get on buses run by the operator whose name is on their ticket.
The county council, which is in charge of the system, has launched a website for passengers, explaining where the main bus stops are, and how tickets can be bought.
Passengers hopping aboard the buses when they are on normal roads can pay the driver in the usual way – but if they get on at one of the stops on the guided section, between Cambridge and St Ives, they will have to buy a ticket from a railway station-style machine, before a bus arrives.
So you’ll need to take binoculars so that you can determine which bus is coming, before buying a ticket. Or they could set up a CCTV system, so you could see what’s happening a kilometre down the track! Perhaps though, the electronic bus indicator saying how long before the next bus arrives, will say the company!
They say that they haven’t had time to develop electronic ticketing! Hmm! I was in London today and used my Oyster card, which I seem to remember has worked on buses for quite a few years now! That must have been a mirage.
But then I suspect all this doesn’t matter too much to those who’ve planned, designed and promoted this scheme, as they need won’t use it anyway! It should actually be condition of election that you have to get to council meetings by either public transport, bicycle or Shank’s pony.
As I said in an earlier post, I wish the busway well, but it does seem that it is doomed by bad planning, unthought design and late delivery.
The Anonymous Widower 