Great Western Coffee Shop

Virtually no information seems to be in the public domain at present, but according to the Express & Error Devon County Council are trying to obtain funding for a laser-guided busway between the proposed Cranbrook 'new town' and the Marsh Barton Trading Estate in the south-west part of Exeter.

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/say-Exeter-laser-bus-plan/article-1698996-detail/article.html (http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/say-Exeter-laser-bus-plan/article-1698996-detail/article.html)

The proposed route seems to very neatly duplicate that of the West of England MainLine and might, if approved, completely scupper any chance of new railway stations at Cranbrook, Monkerton & Marsh Barton.

One can only hope & pray that when the time comes the good citizens of Isca will vote the scheme a massive 'miss' (although I realise that didn't stop them in Cambridge!) 

A laser-guided busway sounds more like some kind of weapons system that a mode of public transport!

Is there actually any advantage of being "laser guided"?  Isn't a dedicated bus lane with a conventional bus a cheaper and probably more sensible idea?

Maybe ... but it's likely that with a laser steering system, buses can pass at speed in opposite directions with minimal clearnance, keeping the width of the busway down, and the build cost cheaper.

The good people of Cambridge have constructed a "guided bus" that uses concrete lips to keep the buses on track and allow them to pass, close and at speed.  I suspect that they might have been able to save themselves a bit of money had they used lasers instead  ;)

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They would certainly have saved money if they had used one of those new-fangled  steel-rail and flanged-wheel arrangements.   

Steel rail and flanged wheels that will never catch on!

Devon County Council have apparently finished the preparations for a 'public consultation':

http://www.devon.gov.uk/de/doc-tunnel-4.pdf?url=/dcc/committee/reports/eec101hq.pdf (http://www.devon.gov.uk/de/doc-tunnel-4.pdf?url=/dcc/committee/reports/eec101hq.pdf)

which should occur sometime during February. The worrying thing, in my opinion, is that although this is supposed to be about a future transport strategy for Exeter they have managed to produce a document which contains absolutely no mention of rail. I will take great delight in attending my local consultation site and telling them exactly what I think about this nonsense (not that it will make a stuff of difference!)

One to keep an eye on however...

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1405396_on_the_right_track_plan_to_build_train_station_instead_of_leigh_busway_could_save_20m