A standing joke

[LE Greys]

Just seen an article on the Cambridge guided busway on the local news. It's got even more delayed by technical problems, which should be familiar to anyone who knows what a plateway is. The general structure seems to be a reinvention of baulk road, and suffers from problems where the baulks can't expand properly. I'm not sure how far it is overdue now, but it does look as though they will abolish the Dunstable one.

Whoever though that recreating obsolete forms of track was a good idea?

BBC web article

 

[mumrar]

The original date for completion and running was April 2009, and now in May 2010 Cambridgeshire Council can't even speculate a date. The costs have increased by around 50%, and large sections of the route had to be replaced before one single bus ever used it. The only benefit I can see this project having is stopping misguided councils from chosing this appalling method of transport for future public transport.

 

[."ooo!.]

it does look as though they will abolish the Dunstable one.

Good. Do you have a source on this?

 

[robertclark125]

Should've been kept as a railway.

 

[jopsuk]

Regardless of the engineering nightmare, the route (at least of the Northern section) is so utterly pointless. Once the buses are off the guideway, they'll be in the same traffic jam as the current bus services. The guideway finishes near the outskirts, and the buses then use the normal roads into the centre of the city.

 

[Greenback]

Let's hope the Cambridge fiasco stops any further busway projects! What's the point in having a busway that avoids the quieter roads but not where the roads are busiest?

 

[LE Greys]

Good. Do you have a source on this?

Only what I heard on Radio 4 about transport cuts. IIRC, it's under a 'value for money review', which sounds like a polite way of saying 'we aren't going to pay for this massive piece of idiocy'.

It's also worth remembering that they had the perfect opportunity to introduce hybrid trolleybuses as a testbed for other areas such as London. How much more money would it have taken to electrify the route? I'm not sure if they can run on batteries for the rest of the route or if they would still need to carry a diesel engine with them (putting up wires all over Cambridge isn't going to be popular). However, I still think that trolleybuses are much more efficient in city centres, no idling diesel engine in traffic jams, and it would be very good if they could run on batteries for some sections, because it would add flexibility.

 

[starrymarkb]

Something like these beasts might have been interesting...

They are guided buses styled to look like trams, the guide rail is in the centre...

 

[Mojo]

Something like these beasts might have been interesting...

They are guided buses styled to look like trams, the guide rail is in the centre...

I'd say that the key difference between them is that they provide the fixed and electrical infrastructure of a tram, but with lower costs. I'd say they're more like a tram than a (mis)guided bus and therefore wholly more acceptable than buses.

 

[gordonthemoron]

They look great, where are they?

Forget that, they're in Caen

 

[jopsuk]

They can though operate as (trolley) buses where there are wires but no guide rail. Should relatively easy to make a hybrid one that can operate on diesel mode as well?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Very easy I should think; there are hybrid trams in some parts of the world aren't there?

And in the late 1980s Dennis built a hybrid trolleybus as a demonstration vehicle.

So I don't see any reason why it couldn't be done.