Overuse of “Trousered” with Lawyers!
It seems these days, that you can’t read a report about the law without seeing the word trousered linked to their fees. The latest is this report on the Cambridge Busway. Here’s what they said.
But the cost of the project, which is already two years late, does not include the millions of pounds expected to be trousered by lawyers as the disputed cost-overrun moves to the High Court of Justice, in The Strand.
Sad to say though, the lawyers will be the real winners in this badly designed and managed project.
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.
Edinburgh’s Tram To Nowhere
I do not like badly conceived and managed projects, as you’d expect from someone, who designed one of the first modern project mangement systems. I had thought that there was nothing that could match the Cambridge Busway for being badly designed, managed and executed project. But it would appear that the Edinburgh Tram, may come close.
Strangely, the two projects have a lot in common; both will be about 40 kilometres long ,both are running years late and massively over budget. Although the Edinburgh Tram will cost six times more than the Cambridge Busway.
They also get up the public’s nose spectacularly. In the Cambridge case, buses proclaim, “Will I be on the Busway soon?” and in Edinburgh, a static tram is parked to block Princes Street.
The Edinburgh Static Tram
I suppose the static tram does have a point, in that it makes getting a bus in the centre of Edinburgh very difficult, so by the time the tram comes into service in 2014, people will be more likely to use the tram. That could be the only reason, as what idiot would deliberately create a traffic jam with something that doesn’t work. Even those twats with 4x4s and supercars get parking tickets, when they block the roads outside Harrods! Why hasn’t someone stuck a parking ticket on the tram?
To make it worse, I saw this sign too!
Edinburgh Road Sign
So trams can turn right, despite the fact the only one is static!
Cinderella Will Take You to the Ball!
If ever there was a railway that was built on the cheap and was very much an ugly duckling, that has metamorphasised into a swan, it is that Cinderella of London’s transport system, the Docklands Light Railway.
It is a unique concept in the United Kingdom, in that the small trains are driverless and generally run between unmanned stations, to cut down both the capital and running costs. Each train has an onboard customer service representative for security as well as dealing with the passengers, He or she can drive the train in an emergency.
It may in some ways be a Cinderella, but over the twenty years or so it has been running, it has grown like Topsy from its original routes linking the City, Canary Wharf and Stratford to serve Lewisham and Woolwich south of the Thames and the City Airport and other places to the east.
Docklands Light Railway at Canary Wharf
Now that the Olympics are just two years away, this line has new and larger trains and will play a major part in moving people to and from that big party in Stratford. Even now, some of the best views of the Olympic Park are from the DLR.
Olympic Park From the DLR
I travel the DLR a lot if I can, as it is the best way to explore the east of London. Views are superb, as unlike the Underground, very little of the line is in tunnels and much of it is on viaducts or bridges raised above the ground. No trip by a tourist to London is complete without using London’s most unusual and unique transport system.
I can’t understand, why the concept has not been copied elsewhere. I feel that the badly-designed, implemented and built Cambridge Busway could almost now have been built as a smaller version of the DLR. Trains might be just two coaches and running at ground level from Trumpington, via Addenbrookes and the city centre all the way to Histon, Long Stanton and St. Ives. The DLR has shown that such a concept will work and in the end, people get to love it.
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.
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.
East London Line Opening
According to this piece in the Hackney Gazette, the opening date of the East London Line is mid-April, but the exact date is being kept under wraps to avoid passenger disappointment.
I am really looking forward to the opening of this railway and will attempt to be there on the first day.
Compare this with the Cambridge Busway. One would appear to a project that has been properly managed and other other is a disaster.
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.
The Anonymous Widower 