Guided Busways

[Skipsy]

I have just been shocked at the existence of these, I have never heard of them in my whole life:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.80149 ... 312!8i6656

Buses run along the path of old tram/railway lines at higher speeds and with separation from the main carriageway. Pretty cool that they make use of disused infrastructure, but I also noticed that they have their own traffic lights which have 2 white diagonal lines instead of a green aspect. Anyone have any information on them? Here's a video that shows it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNKaY3V8mOo (6:06 timestamp) and there are a few more signals later on that have it too, including some LED model traffic lights which I don't know the name of

[Steven]

There's some information about them on this very website.

You may enjoy reading a number of the other articles on there, and looking at our large collection of online mapping too.

[Ruperts Trooper]

I have just been shocked at the existence of these, I have never heard of them in my whole life:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.80149 ... 312!8i6656

Buses run along the path of old tram/railway lines at higher speeds and with separation from the main carriageway. Pretty cool that they make use of disused infrastructure, but I also noticed that they have their own traffic lights which have 2 white diagonal lines instead of a green aspect. Anyone have any information on them? Here's a video that shows it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNKaY3V8mOo (6:06 timestamp) and there are a few more signals later on that have it too, including some LED model traffic lights which I don't know the name of

Would those busways have been better as reinstating railway or light rail?

[quarella]

My first experience of one was in Edinburgh. A pathetically short section which was short lived. I am yet to see any benefit over a bus only road/lane.

[NICK 647063]

I lived for a short while on the A64 York Road in Leeds where these guided bus lanes are, while these are interesting most Leeds locals hate them, to explain on the A64 the trams used to use the central reservation then when the trams went the middle was grassed over like most dual carriageways and looked quite nice, then around 1999 these guided bus lanes were built, the trouble is it turned the A64 into a concrete jungle, no grass or trees all were removed, the guided bus lane seems to also collect so much litter, bus stops are now in the middle of the A64 meaning passengers have to either cross the east or westbound carriageways and then the real issue is that bus companies have to pay to use them and only first buses do.....

So we have a situation where all first buses go along the middle of the A64 and all other services have to use the main carriageway, I think York Road has around 16 different bus services and only 4 of them can use the guided bus lane, this means the rest are left stuck in rush hour traffic....

Really the best idea for such a busy dual carriageway would have been to move the dual carriageway lanes into the central reservation space leaving a narrow central reservation which would mean normal bus lanes could be added with 2 traffic lanes maintained in both directions so all services could use them.

[fras]

I lived for a short while on the A64 York Road in Leeds where these guided bus lanes are, while these are interesting most Leeds locals hate them, to explain on the A64 the trams used to use the central reservation then when the trams went the middle was grassed over like most dual carriageways and looked quite nice, then around 1999 these guided bus lanes were built, the trouble is it turned the A64 into a concrete jungle, no grass or trees all were removed, the guided bus lane seems to also collect so much litter, bus stops are now in the middle of the A64 meaning passengers have to either cross the east or westbound carriageways and then the real issue is that bus companies have to pay to use them and only first buses do.....

So we have a situation where all first buses go along the middle of the A64 and all other services have to use the main carriageway, I think York Road has around 16 different bus services and only 4 of them can use the guided bus lane, this means the rest are left stuck in rush hour traffic....

Really the best idea for such a busy dual carriageway would have been to move the dual carriageway lanes into the central reservation space leaving a narrow central reservation which would mean normal bus lanes could be added with 2 traffic lanes maintained in both directions so all services could use them.

Or bring back the trams !!

[NICK 647063]

I think even if the trams do come back to Leeds they would have to avoid the A64 as although it’s a very wide road it simply doesn’t have the space to accommodate bus lanes and 2 traffic lanes each way and fit a tram in, the A64 has too much traffic to reduce road space and the bus lanes are needed as it’s a major bus route, I know when trams were last mentioned they were to use the side roads where traffic is lighter.

[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
(with a very nice 48yds plate!)
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.12776 ... 312!8i6656 gets its own hamburger!

[KeithW]

The Cambridge Guided Busway which is apparently the longest in the world largely runs on the trackbed of closed railways, the old Varsity Line as far as Trumpington to the south and the old St Ives line to the North. There were two diametrically opposed viewpoints on this. A group called Cast Iron argued in favour of reinstating a rail link while Cambridgeshire County Council favoured its conversion into a guided bus system. The guided bus conversion went ahead and proved to be much more expensive than expected partly due tp the expense of laying a large number of concrete sections and also the decision to cater for double decker buses which meant head room had to be increased. The positive side was of course that the buses could leave the busway at various points and proceed along normal roads.

There were a number of technical faults with the busway as built which delayed opening and lead to legal proceedings. That said the system seems to be popular and well used but it has not proved to be the cheap option to light rail that it was expected to be. I has proven to be popular with cyclists as not only is their provision for them to ride along the a parallel cycle path but there are cycle racks at stations.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.30684 ... authuser=0

You will find a range of viewpoints on this subject at these links. I would have to day I know a number of regular users of the system and their reaction seems rather positive.
http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/20 ... itain.html
http://www.castiron.org.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge ... ded_Busway

[Big L]

I think even if the trams do come back to Leeds they would have to avoid the A64 as although it’s a very wide road it simply doesn’t have the space to accommodate bus lanes and 2 traffic lanes each way and fit a tram in, the A64 has too much traffic to reduce road space and the bus lanes are needed as it’s a major bus route, I know when trams were last mentioned they were to use the side roads where traffic is lighter.

You build the tram lines in the bus lanes.

[DavidB]

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.

[PhilC]

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.

I remember the guided busway being opened, by the then West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive. There was a leaflet issued explaining how it worked.

http://citytransport.info/Scans/Traclin ... n-1250.jpg

The busway followed the course of an old reserved tramway track. Although the busway only covered the last few hundred yards of the least congested part of the route, the experiment was deemed successful. However, when bus services were deregulated the company that won the contract for the Sunday service was not prepared to pay to have its buses equipped with the guide wheels. Consequently the experiment was abandoned.

[B1040]

The cost of converting buses would seem to suggest that a busway of less than 1km would not be cost effective.
As far as Cambridge is concerned, reinstating railways would not deliver commuters to the middle of town and would not deliver links to the estates of St Ives & Huntingdon nor the outlying villages. In rush hours there are capacity issues and the potential for services to be considerably disrupted by issues on the roads, although buses also use diversions to avoid jams.
I am one of those who love the cycle track. In good weather it's a popular option. I am as fast on my bike from central Cambridge to Oakington as a rush hour bus. On a bad traffic day, I can beat the bus to Longstanton. Not bad for nearly 61!

[BigBazz]

It was also proposed to serve the Millennium Dome with a route running along a new guided busway using "wiggly wire" technology rather than a conventional guideway, but it failed to open in time. Reasons given for this include safety concerns from Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate and the fact that the route ran past the then new "eco Sainsbury's" but one of the key sponsors of the Dome was Tesco.

It eventually opened as a conventional bus only road back in 2001 and, more recently, has been converted (along with the parallel West Parkside) to a D2 with one lane each way being a bus lane.

Aerial view pre-DC: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/W+P ... d0.0117593
GSV of the new arrangement: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.49482 ... 384!8i8192

[KeithW]

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.

[Chris5156]

Would those busways have been better as reinstating railway or light rail?

Politically speaking, Leeds and Bradford have guided busways because new railway or light rail has proven politically impossible in West Yorkshire. Proposals for trams, tram-trains, railway lines, trolleybuses etc. have come up dozens of times in the last few decades and are always turned down by Westminster. I interviewed one of the people at Metro, the West Yorkshire PTE, in about 2005 about the busways and he was quite plain about the fact that they were borne out of frustration that no funding could be secured for anything better, so they had built something they could pay for themselves. It was never the first choice of Leeds, Bradford or Metro.

They were never a great success, and as the buses procured in the original rollout became life expired they tended to be replaced with normal buses that aren't capable of using the busways. They'd be far better if they were just replaced with regular nearside bus lanes now.

[B1040]

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.

[Johnathan404]

I interviewed one of the people at Metro, the West Yorkshire PTE, in about 2005 about the busways and he was quite plain about the fact that they were borne out of frustration that no funding could be secured for anything better, so they had built something they could pay for themselves. It was never the first choice of Leeds, Bradford or Metro.

It is often the way. The Gosport bus-only road only exists because the planned tram and tunnel had its funding withdrawn.

[KeithW]

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.

[baroudeur]

Luton guided busway runs between Luton and Dunstable on the line of the old railway line for most of the route. One end runs to Luton airport and the other divides to several destinations. The line has a couple of restricted width sections where two inter bus collisions have taken place! There have also been some "derailments".