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[email protected] · April 26th 17, 06:46 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article , d ()
wrote:

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!

If you did, you will have seen a genuine concrete guideway section eastbound
at the Histon Road end. The curves on the Orchard Park section are too tight
for guided operation so, to save money, it was decided to make it a concrete
roadway with just the entry and exit steelwork to make the stops guided.

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.

While I agree with your criticisms, it is more successful than you imply. It
has grown public transport usage in the St Ives corridor and a last bus from
Cambridge to Huntingdon at 23:30 is unheard of in this part of the world!
It's also made Trumpington a viable Park & Ride car park for Cambridge
station with route R, never thought of when the busway was planned and first
open. In the short term it's been sabotaged by lack of a turning facility in
front of the station but I expect that will get fixed in the longer term.
Note how Whippet bought a guided bus fleet so its Universal route could
start a fast service between Addenbrookes and the station recently. The
southern section was always more problematic for rail reopening, being a bit
short.

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.

The main reason why I think heavy rail would have been better is for access
to Cambridge station. We are hopeless at tram-train operation in this
country so, deciding ten years ago, it would be the only way to get an
uncongested north-south corridor across Cambridge. If were doing tram-train
with the aplomb shown on the continent then I agree light rail would have
been best.

--
Colin Rosenstiel