NX coach stuck on Luton-Dunstable Busway

[PermitToTravel]

What the hell happened here?!

 

[Lrd]

The driver of the coach is a berk that's what happened lol

 

[Bungle965]

Should be an interesting call to control.
Sam

 

[rmt4ever]

What is a "busway"

 

[61653 HTAFC]

What is a "busway"

An expensive folly which takes all the disadvantages of both trains and buses and packages them up together...

 

[gingerheid]

An expensive folly which takes all the disadvantages of both trains and buses and packages them up together...

But which in Cambridge at least, unaccountably, passengers love and use in increasing numbers!

 

[radamfi]

What is a "busway"

To be clear, there are guided and unguided busways. Unguided busways are roads which are exclusively or almost exclusively for buses.

 

[Bletchleyite]

But which in Cambridge at least, unaccountably, passengers love and use in increasing numbers!

It has a key advantage of being able to up capacity very cheaply. It also has the odd feel of a poshed-up Pacer on a country branch line.

 

[AnonymousUser1]

What is a "busway"

usually prefixed with '(mis)guided ' ... as others have said it's a reserved trackway , the busses using it are equipped with guide bars and rollers that press o nthe kerbs making it a hands off driving experience ...

 

[AlterEgo]

usually prefixed with '(mis)guided ' ... as others have said it's a reserved trackway , the busses using it are equipped with guide bars and rollers that press o nthe kerbs making it a hands off driving experience ...

Busways are absolutely the stupidest idea I've ever come across. I was enraged when I heard they ripped up the railway in Dunstable. They may as well have built a road there for all the good it's done.

 

[A0]

Busways are absolutely the stupidest idea I've ever come across. I was enraged when I heard they ripped up the railway in Dunstable. They may as well have built a road there for all the good it's done.

Well given reinstating the railway was somewhere on the scale between 'very unlikely' and 'never in a month of Sundays', something useful had to be done with it.

Notwithstanding that group of idiots who thought that it could be turned into a 'heritage railway'..........

And the reason why it was never really viable to reinstate as a rail line is because it was never part of the 'mainline' through Luton - if you go back far enough, Luton had two stations and the alignment for the Dunstable line went through the other station. Given Thameslink's capacity constraints now, Dunstable would have exacerbated those issues.

And whilst Dunstable itself doesn't have a station, Leagrave, which neighbours Dunstable does - with the added benefit of being on the MML.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Well given reinstating the railway was somewhere on the scale between 'very unlikely' and 'never in a month of Sundays', something useful had to be done with it.

Notwithstanding that group of idiots who thought that it could be turned into a 'heritage railway'..........

And the reason why it was never really viable to reinstate as a rail line is because it was never part of the 'mainline' through Luton - if you go back far enough, Luton had two stations and the alignment for the Dunstable line went through the other station. Given Thameslink's capacity constraints now, Dunstable would have exacerbated those issues.

And whilst Dunstable itself doesn't have a station, Leagrave, which neighbours Dunstable does - with the added benefit of being on the MML.

Would conversion to a tram route have been a better option for the Dunstable line at the time?

 

[A0]

Would conversion to a tram route have been a better option for the Dunstable line at the time?

Probably not - it was only single line (and only ever single line, so not the victim of singling) so you'd have needed a stack of passing loops. And if all it did was shuttle to and from Luton using the old railway line, you'd not have really had anywhere else to serve en-route.

It would have missed all the housing areas. And before some bright spark says 'ah yes, but it could have been extended to the airport' - the local geography would have conspired against that somewhat as the airport is at the top of a very steep hill.

 

[gallafent]

It would have missed all the housing areas. And before some bright spark says 'ah yes, but it could have been extended to the airport' - the local geography would have conspired against that somewhat as the airport is at the top of a very steep hill.

Could always have bored a tunnel, chalk is pretty soft …

… and in the other direction, originally the line continued beyond Dunstable across to just south of Leighton Buzzard on the WCML. Would thus make a handy link to Milton Keynes, too. Traffic in Luton and Dunstable is generally pretty bad, in my experience, so it would have made a decent option to make good progress!

Last time I was there, most of the trackbed through north Dunstable still seemed intact (being used as a cycle / pedestrian / equestrian path). The Leighton Buzzard end would need to be rerouted though (housing has been built), and quite a few changes made to the route in between (the A505 road was built on some of the old alignment). The old platforms at LB went many years ago too, sadly …

 

[Bletchleyite]

I suppose there's little the Luton one does that dualling (with a bus lane each way) Hatters Way wouldn't have done. But I suppose it's a fancy gimmick.

The Cambridgeshire one seems to be genuinely useful as a railway/traditional bus hybrid - and had it been any kind of rail would no doubt have had trouble with capacity growth vs. cost.

 

[embers25]

An expensive folly which takes all the disadvantages of both trains and buses and packages them up together...

Ignoring the issues with the builder, the Cambridge Bus Way is an unmitigated success. Loadings massively up, frequencies massively up, bus quality up, journey time down and journey time reliability up. Certainly better than any train would've done and, unlike the train, is able to serve central Cambridge and Huntingdon please estates en route. Dunstable howevery is a much more half as attempt with poor reliability and poor quality buses but still better than what came before.

 

[Abpj17]

Ignoring the issues with the builder, the Cambridge Bus Way is an unmitigated success. Loadings massively up, frequencies massively up, bus quality up, journey time down and journey time reliability up. Certainly better than any train would've done and, unlike the train, is able to serve central Cambridge and Huntingdon please estates en route. Dunstable howevery is a much more half as attempt with poor reliability and poor quality buses but still better than what came before.

And as others have said, traffic in Luton and Dunstable can be chronically bad. The railway and the M1 cutting across the centre don't really help in one sense - because it constrains the number of width of roads horizontally in the area. Another issue are the towns being in the valley of the chilterns - so various chalk cuttings and steep hills again restrict broader road options. The busway at least bypasses some of the worst Luton traffic areas. Other road schemes will gradually help too like the northern bypass.

In other ways those downsides makes the surrounding scenery beautiful and unusually high range of transport options (3 mainline stations, multiple motorway junctions plus two really major A roads)

 

[Blindtraveler]

Are the NX services ment to use the busway? I assume not as this one got stuck.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Are the NX services ment to use the busway? I assume not as this one got stuck.

They can and do use the non-guided bit to the airport (basically a bus-only road, and I believe non-guided for that exact reason), but they aren't meant to use the guided bit as they don't have guidewheels.

 

[MotCO]

Is it possible to drive down a guided busway without using guidelines - or would there be too much wear on the walls of the tyres?

 

[Whistler40145]

I find this hard to believe, surely the National Express driver would know the route he was taking and there's usually a second member of staff.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is it possible to drive down a guided busway without using guidelines - or would there be too much wear on the walls of the tyres?

The guideway isn't high enough to keep the tyres in the "tracks". You'd crash.

I find this hard to believe, surely the National Express driver would know the route he was taking and there's usually a second member of staff.

The Flightlink services don't have two drivers.

 

[Bungle965]

I find this hard to believe, surely the National Express driver would know the route he was taking and there's usually a second member of staff.

A second member of staff is normally only present on the long journeys i.e Bournemouth- Edinburgh where two drivers are needed.
Sam

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Busways are absolutely the stupidest idea I've ever come across. I was enraged when I heard they ripped up the railway in Dunstable. They may as well have built a road there for all the good it's done.

Not all busways are bad ideas. The Runcorn busway not only provides a rapid means of transport around the new town estates but also an express route for emergency vehicles to use.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not all busways are bad ideas. The Runcorn busway not only provides a rapid means of transport around the new town estates but also an express route for emergency vehicles to use.

The Runcorn busway, of course, is just a bus-only road, none of the guided gimmickry.

 

[radamfi]

Busways are in existence in many towns and cities worldwide, especially in South America where there are a number of huge systems. Only a small minority are guided.

 

[radamfi]

I find this hard to believe, surely the National Express driver would know the route he was taking.

I've had to direct National Express drivers on a number of occasions.

 

[PermitToTravel]

The guideway isn't high enough to keep the tyres in the "tracks". You'd crash.

I guess there's no real harm done though if the wheel rides up the "kerb" and falls back off. The sidewalls probably got knackered by that excursion mind

I'm not sure whether it actually is stuck (wedged against the platform?) or whether it was driven the rest of the way along the busway. Could the Arriva bus have reversed out? I don't think this is possible with the rear axle not having steering/a guidewheel

 

[jon0844]

Why can't they just build a standard tarmac road, with central crash barrier, and have drivers steer? Surely a lot cheaper, and the road would still be reserved just for buses.

I don't get the need for the guidance bit, unless I'm missing something stupidly obvious.

 

[Busaholic]

Why can't they just build a standard tarmac road, with central crash barrier, and have drivers steer? Surely a lot cheaper, and the road would still be reserved just for buses.

I don't get the need for the guidance bit, unless I'm missing something stupidly obvious.

Probably because it would get abused i.e. used by other vehicles.