www.cambridgebusway.co.uk
I have registered the domain name, www.cambridgebusway.co.uk, and have pointed it to all of the posts on the Cambridge Guided Busway.
I Hadn’t Missed Anything
I wondered a couple of days ago, if I’d missed anything on the Cambridge Guided Busway. Now in the Hunts Post there is a detailed article on the standoff between the council and the contractors.
Most of this concerns the viaduct at St. Ives and there are also concerns about flooding on the maintenance track. I had pictures of the latter on this blog in November in an article called, Paddling the Cambridge Busway.
I like the last sentence – The legal profession is licking its lips. I warned of this too in December.
No Date for the Guided Busway
Have I missed something?
It all seems exceptionally quiet on the busway front!
Dealing with the Cambridge Busway Overspend
The long-running saga of the Cambridge Busway seems no nearer a conclusion, with no opening date announced.
But today the Cambridge News claims that a million pounds of taxpayers’ money could be spent on the busway.
Taxpayers’ money could be used to cover an overspend on the guided busway.
Cambridgeshire County Council has set aside £1 million of funding for local transport and community safety projects in a contingency fund.
Opposition Liberal Democrats say the cash is being set aside for the guided busway but the Conservative- run council has said the funding cuts are “not related specifically” to the project, although if developer contributions fall short, it could be.
Projects affected by the reductions for 2010/11 include safety schemes cut from £1 million to £800,000, the Cambridge Access Strategy cut from £600,000 to £447,000, community transport cut from £200,000 to £50,000, Market Town Strategy schemes cut from £1,575,000 to £1.4 million, and local bus infrastructure in Cambridge and Huntingdon cut from £975,000 to £680,000.
It looks like the busway may be on the point of being like an out-of-control bull in a china shop.
The Big Difference Between Real Tennis and Lawn Tennis
A couple of days ago, Andy Murray beat the giant two metres six centimetres, John Isner, in the Australian Open in Melbourne. Andy Murray himself is not short being about 1.96 metres. If you do want it in those useless Imperial measures that only cause confusion, that six foot three. Rarely, do you see a male tennis player, who is not tall, with some very much like Isner in the giant category.
Last night, I played a man on the Real Tennis court at Cambridge University and he was probably about two metres tall, compared to my 1.71m. We had a very good game, which ended up as an honourable draw over the hour we played.
When I first took an interest in tennis in the 1950s and 1960s, players reflected society. Ken Rosewall, who is probably one of the top ten players of all time was actually shorter than I am at 1.70m. His compatriot, Rod Laver, was just a bit taller at 1.72m.
So why is there no smaller players at the top in tennis?
In my view, high-tech rackets have taken over from the old wooden ones, that incidentally are still used in real tennis, and a crashing serve is now all important. Height makes that serve even better with the new rackets and the whole playing process has been dumbed down. Mainly in the name of money for the sports goods manufacturers, rather than entertainment for those who watch and play the game.
I still like watching the game on television, but I can understand why others are turned off by a spectacle that has got slower and is much more about power than skill, artistry and athleticism. If it doesn’t watch it, tennis will become just another game for freaks like basketball and American football. Rugby Union had better watch its image as well, as size and power are becoming more important than skill. I used to watch it quite a bit, but now it just bores me.
So to return to tennis. I may play the odd game of lawn tennis on holiday, but give me the old game played for centuries any time. It is a game of intelligence, that all ages, sexes and sizes can enjoy equally. It’s even got a handicapping system, which means that players of quite different abilities can have a very competitive game.
The Cambridge Busway Goes Quiet
I have a Google Alert on “Cambridge Busway”.
There has been little or no news thrown up since Christmas.
So is it ever going to open? Probably! But when?
Cambridge Busway Art
It’s good to see that Cambridgeshire County Council has it’s priorities right on the busway.
They’ve spent a lot of money on an art work by a German artist for one of the unopened Park and Ride sites.
I wonder how many councillors and officers of the council visited the artist in Germany? Hopefully none, but someone please tell me, so I can post it here.
Also, has anybody any idea when it will open?
Busway Humour
You really know you have made it, when you start appearing in humorous Christmas lists. In today’s list in the Cambridge News, number 10 is as follows.
For £116 million you could build a guided busway . . . although Santa could be a little late delivering it.
No delivery date has been set either!
Busway Farce Goes National
The national press has been rather quiet on the Cambridge Busway. Perhaps, here in East Anglia, we’re rather irrelevant or perhaps Cambridge is just somewhere you pass by on the way to your second home in Norfolk. The truth about Cambridge is actually much more important, as without it we’d all be further into the do-dah than we are.
But today, the infamous signwriting error has been reported in both the Daily Mail and The Telegraph. It’s even in the Odd News on UPI.
Obviously, spelling is much more important news than a badly executed project with massive cost overruns.
The Cambridge Gutterway
This letter to the local paper talks about the green credentials of the Cambridge Busway. In fact the writer is not very impressed, but as he is the chairman of CAST.IRON, which is a group that campaigns for a real rail service on the route, this is probably to be expected. On the other hand, it certainly looks like that group may well have been right on a lot of things, including costs.
But what I like is his use of the term “gutterway” for the busway. After all it’s effectively a long concrete channel, that has generated large amounts of cardon dioxide and absorbed lots and lots of money.
The Anonymous Widower 