Guided Busways

[jervi]

Look what I found
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_g ... ed_Kingdom
There's an article on wikipedia listing all guided busways

[Berk]

In Cambridgeshire, our newish mayor seems keen on extensive metros diving under the city centre (possibly in defiance of geology) as well as reaching to smallish far flung villages.
When his first proposals were unveiled, austerity seemed to be the political enthusiasm, I am unconvinced by pre-election promises of largesse and cannot quite see what form these metros would take, even if there was funding.
Suggestions of guided buses to places like Cambourne have been opposed with vigour by the communities en route.

The Cambridge guided busway was only possible because the existing railway track was still in existence. There is no such spare corridor to Cambourne and even if you built one to Girton alongside the A428 where do you go then ? The A428 runs pretty well to that point but then it all goes bad as you hit the merge with the A14.

I think the point you’re making is the only way to extend the busway would be to build a new guideway to settlements such as Cambourne.

It can be done, but knowing how much fuss residents make (not always without reason), it’s unlikely to happen. There doesn’t appear to be much space for a line to branch off the current busway anyway.

Perhaps the only option would be a new-built branch from the Trumpington link; this would then need to double-back past J12 and J13 of the M11 before crossing the A428. Although you might be able to include stops at Granchester, Coton and Madingley en route to Camborne and Caxton.

[B1040]

If the route is too circuitous people won't use it.

[Berk]

I’m not sure the current route to Trumpington is that direct, but some people must be using it...

There certainly isn’t any room to build a branch from King’s Hedges - unless you fill in a borrow pit, and demolish a close.

[Ruperts Trooper]

At St Ives the old railway station had been demolished and the site developed. Worse the line could not continue beyond St Ives to Huntingdon or Chatteris and March which would have made the rail option more attractive. The Irony of course is that the demolition of the Huntingdon viaduct would have allowed the possibility of an extension at least as far as Godmanchester.
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/st ... ndex.shtml

That said a new St Ives railway station could have been built where the Busway Park and Ride site is so I dont see that as a problem. In general I think the extra flexibility of the guided bus and the benefits of the cycle way made it worthwhile but I dont think that would work unless the busway length was longer than a few miles.

The old rail line between St Ives and Huntingdon wasn't really suitable for restoration - it predominantly ran on wooden trestles across the Great Ouse floodplain with a very low axle loading limit, it was also single track unlike the Cambridge-St Ives section which was double track.

[vlad]

There are some purpose built Guided Busways in Crawley, however they are not quite as extensive as other towns/cities and only really exist on approach to junctions. They were built in the late 90s I've heard.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.10204 ... 312!8i6656

You need specific vehicles equipped to run on guided busways. Why go to all that expense for a busway of that length when a bus gate would do the same job for much less money?

[Big L]

In 1984 I travelled to the West Midlands to sample Tracline 65 in Small Heath, the first guided busway in the UK which was just 600m long and only lasted for three years. I can't believe it was 35 years ago! There's a YouTube video of it.

That would be Short Heath, not Small Heath. Wrong side of the city !

[AutomaticBeloved]

Something I read was central government will not contribute to any Bus Rapid Transit or Bus Priority unless it's dedicated track or has some other features that restrict it from standard vehicles. Hence the boom in guided busway construction.

[Big L]

Look what I found
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_g ... ed_Kingdom
There's an article on wikipedia listing all guided busways

There is also a section of a little-known website that includes a list.

[KeithW]

I think the point you’re making is the only way to extend the busway would be to build a new guideway to settlements such as Cambourne.

It can be done, but knowing how much fuss residents make (not always without reason), it’s unlikely to happen. There doesn’t appear to be much space for a line to branch off the current busway anyway.

Perhaps the only option would be a new-built branch from the Trumpington link; this would then need to double-back past J12 and J13 of the M11 before crossing the A428. Although you might be able to include stops at Granchester, Coton and Madingley en route to Camborne and Caxton.

The problems is less can it be done than how would it help ?

The buses currently run down the old A428 which takes less than 10 minutes to get to Madingley Mulch. The problem starts from there, at peak ii can take 15 minutes to get from there to the M11 junction.

I used to drive down the A428 from Gamlingay to Girton in under 20 minutes, the problem is that as soon as you hit Girton it can take that long to cover the short section from there to the Histon junction and there is no room there for a busway. The problem getting into Cambridge is the last 3 miles from the M11 or A14 to the city centre and the only available transport corridors are now part of the guided busway.

[KeithW]

I’m not sure the current route to Trumpington is that direct, but some people must be using it...

There certainly isn’t any room to build a branch from King’s Hedges - unless you fill in a borrow pit, and demolish a close.

Getting to Trumpington Road Park and ride site is easy you head south down the M11 to J11 and take the left had lane. Been there done that. The trouble that you then need to allow for 30 minutes on the bus down the Trumpington Road. You can use the guided busway to the railway station but that leaves you a mile and a half away from the city centre. I used the P&R bus to the Grafton centre where our office was.

[Berk]

Surely you’d get off at Hills Road, and change buses?? Instead of heading down Station Road??

Anyway, I wasn’t thinking of how an out-of-town visitor would get the guided bus, but a local resident in one of the villages.

If the local buses are good enough, that’s fine, but I’m guessing they must get held up in congestion too.

[KeithW]

Surely you’d get off at Hills Road, and change buses?? Instead of heading down Station Road??

Anyway, I wasn’t thinking of how an out-of-town visitor would get the guided bus, but a local resident in one of the villages.

If the local buses are good enough, that’s fine, but I’m guessing they must get held up in congestion too.

The local buses from most villages are poor to non existent. From my South Cambridgeshire Village 20 miles from Cambridge we had ONE bus a day to Cambridge and it took an hour and 30 minutes each way, not because of congestion but because it was routed through every village in South Cambs including Cambourne. As I have already stated the congestion occurs in the last 3 miles into Cambridge. Then they cancelled it so the only public transport option left was too go west to St Neots and then catch the X5 bus. A local taxi firm wanted to set up a mini bus service but this was blocked as not being in the public interest.

As for a new guided busway If they can show me the corridor into Cambridge that could be used to get into the city centre from the west I would be more than happy to hear about it. There are 3 roads, the Huntingdon Road, the A1303 Madingley Road and the A603 Barton Road. All are heavily developed and there is no room for a guided busway. There is also one old railway from Trumpington but that is already used by the Cambridge guided Busway. New developments are continuing apace with large scale development happening between the Madingley Road and the Huntingdon Road and at Trumpington. No matching infrastructure development has happened apart from a few token cyclepaths. This is the so called cyclepath down the Madingley Road. All they did was put up signs on the old narrow footpath meaning cyclists have to weave around pedestrians, lamp posts and bus stops.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.21284 ... authuser=0

In fact the only piece of land you could drive a new route across is Grantchester Meadows and I dont think even Cambridge Council is mad enough to suggest that. To distract the public every decade or so they roll out fanciful plans involving tunnels, monorails etc none of which are even remotely feasible.

[linuxrocks]

You need specific vehicles equipped to run on guided busways. Why go to all that expense for a busway of that length when a bus gate would do the same job for much less money?

True, but the buses for the Adelaide O-Bhan sometimes appear on other routes, or they did when I lived there. I think at one point in time, all of the buses they had made where built on O-Bhan chassis.

[jervi]

There are some purpose built Guided Busways in Crawley, however they are not quite as extensive as other towns/cities and only really exist on approach to junctions. They were built in the late 90s I've heard.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.10204 ... 312!8i6656

You need specific vehicles equipped to run on guided busways. Why go to all that expense for a busway of that length when a bus gate would do the same job for much less money?

When Crawley was built, they left room for the main roads to be expanded, with either adding more lanes and flyovers for the dual carriageways, and the option to dual for the single carriageways. In early 2000s (I guess when the government were funding these schemes) the local council thought of adding these guided busways as there was that room reserved for expanding. I read into the situation at Crawley and construction started in 2002 and ended in 2006, with only half of the guided busways built. TBH, the bus service in Crawley is very good for the size of the town with some routes having 10 busses and hour.

[jcdti]

Someone mentioned the Luton and Dunstable guided busway, and I thought I'd give my thoughts on it as someone from the area.

I think it's genuinely quite useful. A lot of people who live in Dunstable work in Luton, and vice versa I suppose. It also provides a direct route to the airport, the train station, and the football stadium for those Saturday afternoons. It reduces bus journey times from up to half an hour to ten minutes or so, and it takes off a lot of stinking buses from the local roads. In that sense, I'm all for it.

I suppose the only downside is that it's kind of sad to see a historical railway ripped up and repurposed like that, but that's just a nostalgia/glamour thing more than anything.

[Berk]

Does it climb the hill (to the airport), or do you need to change buses??

[owen b]

Someone mentioned the Luton and Dunstable guided busway, and I thought I'd give my thoughts on it as someone from the area.

I think it's genuinely quite useful. A lot of people who live in Dunstable work in Luton, and vice versa I suppose. It also provides a direct route to the airport, the train station, and the football stadium for those Saturday afternoons. It reduces bus journey times from up to half an hour to ten minutes or so, and it takes off a lot of stinking buses from the local roads. In that sense, I'm all for it.

I suppose the only downside is that it's kind of sad to see a historical railway ripped up and repurposed like that, but that's just a nostalgia/glamour thing more than anything.

There's an old thread about busways, mainly referring to the Cambridge scheme, but also with quite a few references to Luton - Dunstable : viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31888&hilit=luton+d ... 20#p732533 It cost an awful lot of taxpayers money (£91m) and has missed its usage targets by a long way.

[owen b]

Does it climb the hill (to the airport), or do you need to change buses??

No it doesn't. DART is currently under construction to take people from Luton Parkway railway station to the airport : https://dart.llal.org.uk/ described as "The £225m Luton DART (Direct Air-Rail Transit) will speed travellers from Luton Airport Parkway station to the terminal of London Luton Airport in well under four minutes." The A505 is currently badly affected by works to install the over bridge for the link.

[jcdti]

There's an old thread about busways, mainly referring to the Cambridge scheme, but also with quite a few references to Luton - Dunstable : viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31888&hilit=luton+d ... 20#p732533 It cost an awful lot of taxpayers money (£91m) and has missed its usage targets by a long way.

Fair and valid points there, for sure. Thanks for linking that thread.