The Cambridge guided busway
- Thread starter User
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Night Train
Maker of Things
- Location
- Greater Manchester
They are pretty stupid IMO. The only benefit seems to be to reduce the carriage width required for the bus at speed but then to remove that benefit by adding loads of concrete.
Also, like trams, if something obstructs the route everything grinds to a halt.
Infrastructure for the sake of infrastructure. It probably means someone gets their name in lights for 'building' it.
Also, like trams, if something obstructs the route everything grinds to a halt.
Infrastructure for the sake of infrastructure. It probably means someone gets their name in lights for 'building' it.
- Location
- The TerrorVortex
This one's especially stupid, as the fast guided bit is through the emptiness of the Fens, then it gets onto the crowded Cambridge roads.
And it was built on top of a disused railway line, that would have cost £25 000 000 to reopen.
The bus thing cost about ten times that, and opened about three years late.
They're building another in Dunstable...
And it was built on top of a disused railway line, that would have cost £25 000 000 to reopen.
The bus thing cost about ten times that, and opened about three years late.
They're building another in Dunstable...
MisterStan
Label Required
- Location
- Out there somewhere
I use it every day, either on the bike or the bus. The buses run quite well to the timetable and run every 10 minutes during 'commuting hours' they transfer to the roads in Cambridge and at St Ives at the other end. The idea was to remove the issues caused by the A14 which can (and often does) be blocked by more than 1 accident a day.
They didn't resurrect the railway as it would have been less flexible (I.e. the train would only stop at Cambridge Station) Initialy I was sceptical but as this was the reason I got back into cycling, I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. The fact that we have a bus stop 30 seconds from my front door also helps. I also think that if they'd managed to get it built and running in time with their plans people wouldn't be so negative about it. Just don't mention the court case....
They didn't resurrect the railway as it would have been less flexible (I.e. the train would only stop at Cambridge Station) Initialy I was sceptical but as this was the reason I got back into cycling, I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. The fact that we have a bus stop 30 seconds from my front door also helps. I also think that if they'd managed to get it built and running in time with their plans people wouldn't be so negative about it. Just don't mention the court case....
Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
The adjacent cycle path is nirvana .............
It would be nice to have the path extended east and west and north and south to reach the coast in each direction.
It would be nice to have the path extended east and west and north and south to reach the coast in each direction.
MisterStan
Label Required
- Location
- Out there somewhere
Don't mention the horse poo to Crankarm!
HLaB
Marie Attoinette Fan
In Edinburgh the guided busway was just a way of reserving the land for the farce of a tram project.
Alien8
Senior Moment
- Location
- (A little bit north of) Cambridge
Yes, they get to do things like this: Duckling trapped on guided busway rescued by driver
Andy Campbell, general manager of Stagecoach Cambridgeshire, praised the driver.
He said: "We don't specifically tell our drivers not to run over the wildlife..."
But some people still give it a good go...
Car driver stuck on busway says "sun was in my eyes"
Woman arrested after driving car onto guided busway
Car thieves take stolen vehicle for a spin - along guided busway
The problem that is known as the A14.
Night Train
Maker of Things
- Location
- Greater Manchester
We have one coming too.
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereve...51_plans-revealed-for-76m-leigh-guided-busway
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereve...51_plans-revealed-for-76m-leigh-guided-busway
Becs
Veteran
- Location
- Old Hatfield (it's nice honest!)
The cycle path along side it is great for informal races/time trials 
Bl**dy trams - don't get me started. I had hoped that my 2 yrs in Naples would have ensured they were all installed before I got back. Now, I have 7 day a week work outside my flat!!
We have had guided bus lanes in some parts of Leeds for a few years now. Quite a nice idea (in theory) but really a simple bus only lane would do the job as well for maybe 1000th of the cost.
And they are UGLY in the extreme.
I thought that maybe, as suggested by HlaB, they were sort of a precursor to a tram system of some sorts. After all the concrete runners look big and strong enough for a TGV to trundle along on.
Seems not though, just plain old run of the mill buses.
And they are UGLY in the extreme.
I thought that maybe, as suggested by HlaB, they were sort of a precursor to a tram system of some sorts. After all the concrete runners look big and strong enough for a TGV to trundle along on.
Seems not though, just plain old run of the mill buses.
it's a totally stupid project from beginning to end
the cost and time over-runs were not particularly outrageous (as in outrageous but not uncommon on infrastructure projects) but the cost of hiring Atkins to do a job that the Council should have done for themselves has ballooned to almost ten big ones. The upcoming court case between the Contractors and the Council will cost the Council something on the far side of five million - surprising, given that Atkins should have ensured that all ambiguity in the contract was ironed out.
As for the rest - it's a bit like prescribing aspirin for a crack habit. The A14 is one of the DfT's most outrageous motorways by stealth. One of Mr. Hammond's first acts as Transport minister was to nix a £1.4bn upgrade, for which we can all breathe a sigh of relief, but the central question, one that governments of whatever stripe are going to avoid at all costs, is how a strategic route, carrying, so I am told, 40% of our trade by bulk, came to be a general purpose would-be expressway, rammed with the cars that are turning Cambridgeshire and Suffolk in to one big suburb. There's a very simple, cheap way forward, and that is to close 30 or more of the junctions, turning the road in to something that serves exporters and importers rather than the retail parks that fester along its length. That's not going to happen under this government, and I can't foresee it happening under the next. So....the taxpayer has coughed up a hundred million quid for something that is, laughably, described as 'sustainable' but, which is entirely the opposite.
the cost and time over-runs were not particularly outrageous (as in outrageous but not uncommon on infrastructure projects) but the cost of hiring Atkins to do a job that the Council should have done for themselves has ballooned to almost ten big ones. The upcoming court case between the Contractors and the Council will cost the Council something on the far side of five million - surprising, given that Atkins should have ensured that all ambiguity in the contract was ironed out.
As for the rest - it's a bit like prescribing aspirin for a crack habit. The A14 is one of the DfT's most outrageous motorways by stealth. One of Mr. Hammond's first acts as Transport minister was to nix a £1.4bn upgrade, for which we can all breathe a sigh of relief, but the central question, one that governments of whatever stripe are going to avoid at all costs, is how a strategic route, carrying, so I am told, 40% of our trade by bulk, came to be a general purpose would-be expressway, rammed with the cars that are turning Cambridgeshire and Suffolk in to one big suburb. There's a very simple, cheap way forward, and that is to close 30 or more of the junctions, turning the road in to something that serves exporters and importers rather than the retail parks that fester along its length. That's not going to happen under this government, and I can't foresee it happening under the next. So....the taxpayer has coughed up a hundred million quid for something that is, laughably, described as 'sustainable' but, which is entirely the opposite.
we go over the A14 on LonJoG. You may have seen the note on the crib sheet saying 'avoid A14'. That's because on the first recce ride I didn't avoid the A14. Cue general disappointment with life coupled with sufficient panic to force a visit to the Happy Eater on the first slip road off what is a motorway, but with narrower lanes.
