London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · April 26th 17, 05:40 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On Tue, 25 Apr 2017 20:36:18 -0500
wrote:
In article , () wrote:
Huh? Its basically a concrete road with steel guiderails either side and
with the occasional hole in the concrete to stop chavs driving their
Halfords enhanced Fiestas along it.

No it isn't! Either go and look at how the guideway is constructed or stop
spouting nonsense here. The rails are purely made of concrete castings. I
visited the concrete track factory while they were being made.

So how come the section at Orchard Park uses steel guiderails then? And I
didn't just look on streetview, I was there!

The government wouldn't have done the cost benefit analysis - that would
have been the local council and I find it hard to believe that a light
rail link would have cost more than the cost of the white elephant
cambridge ended up with.

I'd be interested in your definition of "white elephant". The busway is well
used, despite its drawbacks.

Huge up front infrastructure cost (lets not forget the council didn't even
have to pay for rolling stock like they would have with a tram) that ends up
with a slow, low capacity system that is still shafted by heavy traffic in
the town centre anyway. IMO that = white elephant.

Personally I think the best solution for small cities is a pre-metro as
is popular in some parts of europe. Its a tram in the suburbs running
along the street but dives into tunnel in the city centre to avoid the
traffic. Tunneling is expensive obviously but it pays long term.

--
Spud