Cambridge Busway – The Real Winners
It is starting to be obvious, who are going to be the real winners from the Cambridge Busway – The lawyers! This article in the Cambridge Evening News opens with the following.
A major court battle is looming over the cost of Cambridgeshire’s guided bus project after contractors claimed it could cost millions more to build than originally budgeted.
Cambridgeshire County Council and the builders have been at loggerheads over the guided bus contract for years.
When they say major battle, that will probably be true as the busway was budgeted to cost £118.2 million and the contractors say it will cost upwards of £30 million more.
The lawyers are going to love this one.
I’m also glad I don’t live in Cambridgeshire, as I suspect the council taxpayers of that county will be footing the bill in the end.
Can this be one of the reasons why the busway was built? If it had been heavy rail, then the excess costs would have fallen on Network Rail, which would actually mean the government. Here Cambridgeshire get that toxic parcel!
And there is still no opening date for the busway.
Dangers of the Busway
This was the heading on a letter in the Cambridge Evening News.
The last two paragraphs are repeated here.
The track was being well used by walkers, joggers, cyclists, fishermen, bird-watchers and horse-riders.
Many of them, including children and a couple of cows which had escaped from the neighbouring field, were on the bus lane. As it seems to be de rigueur to be plugged into an iPod and oblivious to external sounds, I wonder how long it will be before we have an accident on it?
I hope the writer is wrong.
Someone is Using the Cambridge Busway
Busway stories seem to be like buses; you wait ages for one and then another comes straight after it.
So here’s one about free runners using the busway.
Cambridge Busway Builders Take a Break
It’s late and now it’s going to be two weeks later as now the builders of the Cambridge Busway are taking a two week break over Christmas!
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.
The Anonymous Widower 