Of course, they weren't always at eachothers throats.
Cast Iron were a key member of
CANBER▸ in the mid-2000s, so I spent quite a lot of time helping them to try and stop the busway, and get a rail solution built instead. As a result, I well remember some of the "interesting" publicity material that the promoters came out with.
Here is one such example from October 2007. With apologies in advance to Sade, I give you
"Smooth Operator" :
Construction of the world's longest guided busway has just started in Cambridgeshire, with precast concrete the key.
Presumably, residents of Cambridgeshire where the local university is home to some of the world's best academics - get used to leading the way on matters of research and innovation. But it may still come as a surprise that the East Anglian county is leading the world in matters of transportation.
A guided busway is currently under construction between Cambridge and St Ives that , when completed, will be the longest in the world. It will run almost 26km, linking commuters north of the city with its railway station, science park and Addenbrookes Hospital. Importantly, it will also pass the 9,500 homes in the Northstowe development set to be built between the two areas.
The idea of building a guided busway came out of the Cambridge to Huntingdon Multi Modal Study (CHUMMS). The areas are currently linked by the A14, a very heavily used road that is notorious for accidents and breakdowns, in part due to its high volume of HGVs en route to Felixstowe. Journey times are highly unpredictable, and incidents on the A14 can gridlock all surrounding roads.
The busway scheme makes use of a disused rail corridor, and was one of a number of options considered during the study. “We looked at both heavy and light rail, as well as building a bus lane on the A14," explains Bob Menzies, Cambridgeshire County Council head of delivery for the busway scheme. Surprisingly, not only was the bus solution cheaper than either light or heavy rail (at just one fifth the price), but it also proved capable of carrying more passengers.
The guided bus network will allow standard buses to run within a concrete "guideway", which consists of a running surface and a low upstand. Small guide wheels on the side of the buses run along the inside of the upstand to keep them within the guideway.
It is a simple system that allows any bus to join the network, provided it has been fitted with the necessary steering modifications and guide wheels, which can be done for as little as £2,000 although the operators on the Cambridgeshire route are investing in completely new fleets. The main advantages over rail are in the cost of construction, operation and maintenance, and the system scores over normal buses in many ways, including land take, drainage and ride quality.
Because the buses run within the designated guideway (or busway), they require far less space than traditional road running. They also require less hard surfacing just enough for the bus wheels so surface run off is less of an issue than it would be with road construction.
(Continues...)
Whilst hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing, it is well worth reading the whole piece, given the way things have turned out.
Click on the map to explore geographics
