There’s optimism at last that the world’s longest running busway/saga/joke (delete as appropriate) might actually be operational this summer, possibly as “early” as August. Foot dragging BAM Nuttall has handed the project over Cambridgeshire council. There follows a 28 day snagging period (sic) followed by testing. An August launch will be over two years late, thanks to BAM Nuttall.
It’s a sobering thought that the process started 10 years ago with the Cambridge to Huntingdon Multi-Modal Study, recommending widening of the A14 road and building of a guided busway. Thousands of objectors wanted a railway instead. Let’s not forget that this is a victory for the bus service and trust that BRT can show the world just what you can do with dedicated roadspace.
Putting the process into context, it’s also a sobering thought that it was 10 years ago that prince William met the person who today becomes his wife. Unless anyone can raise just cause. 2011 is certainly a momentous year, then, with two long running epics concluding, both with hope for the future. Kate is in good company. Perhaps this August she’ll be asked to cut the ribbon or dash a bottle of champagne against a two year old busway-specified Stagecaoch Scania N230UD/ADL E400.
Two of these so-called limited edition Oysters will go to the happy couple. Any chance they’ll get used? That leaves 749,998 for the rest of us...
11 comments:
Think the Royal Couple will be fitted with guidewheels for the day so they can navigate the dedicated Red Carpet?
We do have another busway - just. Think of the past hype (long past) of Runcors, the busway town!
Liked the Kale & Will link - great minds?
http://publictransportexperience.blogspot.com/2011/04/right-royal-blog.html
I must learn to type
"Runcors" should be "Runcorn"
And to think that a perfectly good rail line was sacrificed for this long running saga of non-achievement!
0846...and will the same farce unfold on the Fareham-Gosport project ? I think the same contractor is involved are they not ?
isn't technology great, you don't need real oysters on your wedding night you can get a card these days - I suppose it helps save the planet
And as Duke and Duchess of Cambridge it would be highly appropriate for the royal couple!
@ Anonymous 08:46
Don't know if you had seen the state of the railway line before it got ripped up, but it was in a very poor state and had only been used by one very slowly moving sand train a few years before that. Replacing and repairing it would probably have cost more than this Musguided Busway, plus the council wouldn't have got the government funding for if they had wanted to build a railway. Then you have the expense of rolling stock, and higher fares introduced which people refuse to pay and drive instead.....and so on! TBH there is nothing wrong with the existing services that go by road, and that was before Stagecoach and Whippet had to splash out money on new buses....
@Anonymous (0854)
The Fareham project is not a guided busway, just a bus-only road. Assuming the contractor knows how to build a two-lane road, there shouldn't be any problems.
@1109 - your claim that the cost of renewing the railway line between Huntingdon-St Ives-Cambridge was more than the cost of the Busway's construction is wrong. The Multi-Modal Study itself concedes that the cost of instigating a heavy rail link would be less than that of a guided busway but is then ignored.
That is one of the glaring ironies of this sorry saga - that the a renewed railway would have saved considerably sums of money and due to the manner in which ballast is laid, would have avoided the flooding problems BAM Nuttal has had to deal with for the past 20 months.
When a guided busway costs more to install than a heavy railway line, those at the helm of such schemes must at least acknowledge that better options may have been overlooked.
The railway would probably only have offered a 30 minute interval service at best, depositing passengers at Cambridge Station leaving a walk to the city centre. The busway can offer a much higher service frequency, serving more stops, and offering direct journeys to/from more points. I just hope the council, Stagecoach, and Whippet make us all proud and show us what buses can do given a dedicated right of way.
Pete, Chippenham
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