Strange Prototype (of what?) in East Anglia

[RThompson]

The guide wheels should be attached to the steering unit unless manufacturers are coming up with newer ideas that i'm not aware off?

 

Modern Buses are limited to 100KPH by law so even on the guided busway because of this even off road they can't go any faster, my 2 buses are not limited becuase of their age but are just slow! They only do 45mph.

 

For a bit of history the original tracline 65 west midlands travel Metrobuses were the first guided buses in britain and had to have a special dispensation because the guide wheels made them wider than buses normally were! I've driven one of these myself although long after the scheme was abandoned.

 

Regards Robert Thompson

 

www.rtmodels.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

When it was demonstrated to me in Leeds it (the Cambridge type) was purely a mechanical system, a lateral guidewheel ahead of the front wheel which simply steered the bus as necessary. Does this indeed use electric power (in a later version? perhaps via the power steering servo?) or are you referring to the wire-guided version that was to be used at the Dome?

[melmerby]

The guide wheels should be attached to the steering unit unless manufacturers are coming up with newer ideas that i'm not aware off?

 

Modern Buses are limited to 100KPH by law so even on the guided busway because of this even off road they can't go any faster, my 2 buses are not limited becuase of their age but are just slow! They only do 45mph.

 

For a bit of history the original tracline 65 west midlands travel Metrobuses were the first guided buses in britain and had to have a special dispensation because the guide wheels made them wider than buses normally were! I've driven one of these myself although long after the scheme was abandoned.

 

Regards Robert Thompson

 

www.rtmodels.co.uk

 

When the Tracline 65 was introduced I seem to recall there was talk of all the old tramway reservations being converted to that method however it never progressed passed the original 600 yd strip and remained a curiosity until abandoned.

 

Cheers

Keith

[Lord-Claud-Hamilton]

It's reported in the latest issue (650) of Rail Magazine that CCC feels "it is increasingly unlikely that the guided busway on the former St. Ives line will be fully commissioned until next year.............because the contractors have still to satisfactorily complete six outstanding jobs......"

 

Words (that I could repeat to you good people) fail me!

[lmsforever]

First to name what this is (it may be suitable for another area but it's too weird):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos taken last Wednesday 4th August.

 

Brownie points only for identifier...........with murky details........

 

Best, Pete.

 

Someones been doing up their driveway

!!

[dibber25]

Personally, I doubt that the Cambridge system will ever open. The local buses have slogans on them, saying "When will I run on the busway?" What beggars belief is that the Luton-Dunstable scheme has got approval without waiting to see if the Cambridge shambles can be sorted out. It's a classic 21st (well 20th actually) century version of the atmospheric railway - a half-baked scheme that someone decided to build without really thinking the idea through. The only advantage it had was that it didn't need to use Cambridge's useless, badly sited, one-platform station. But then, as has been said, it DID need to use Cambridge's equally awful road system. And where did 'Two Jags' decide to build lots more houses?? You couldn't make it up!

CHRIS LEIGH

[Dagworth]

Next time someone is in the vicinity of this waste of space could they please measure between the guideway curbs to see if a concrete sleeper would fit?

 

Andi

[Lord-Claud-Hamilton]

Personally, I doubt that the Cambridge system will ever open. The local buses have slogans on them, saying "When will I run on the busway?"

CHRIS LEIGH

 

I agree entirely and, as i said before, what really annoys me is that the people that agreed to this, despite all the objections, are long gone and wont be held accountable!

 

All that was needed was decent direct express bus services straight into Cambridge from St. Ives, Huntingdon and other towns/villages along the A14 corridor that encouraged people to stop using their cars.

 

IF (Big 'IF') the Northstowe development went ahead then the trackbed could have been converted into a single direction (according to the time of day) toll road.

 

As rail enthusiasts we would all like to say the line reinstated, but I never felt it was a viable option......expecially the service described by CASTIRON.

[Southernman46]

Y'know - if they were to ballast that , lay some track .............

[trisonic]

Y'know - if they were to ballast that , lay some track .............

 

 

There's already ballast outside the "station" area - a pink granite, which is kind of apt somehow..........I picked up a chunk to bring back to the 'States with me but left it at my cousins' place by mistake.

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

 

[chrisf]

I'm in danger of disrespecting former workmates at this point. The misguided bus in Cambs was one product of a multi-modal study called CHUMMS. The idea was that a public trsnsport solution should be in place before improvement plans for the A14 were taken forward. That bit is fine but consultants were paid good public money to come up with this wretched idea! Even better is that the plans for the A14 include replacing the length around/through Huntingdon with a new alignment closely following an altern ative route put forward in the 1970s by the MP before last for Huntingdon.

 

Now, of course, we have draconian cuts in public spending so we have no funds for improving the A14 and new infrastructure gathering dust and other substances. This is what made Britain great.

 

Chris

[daveyb]

There are still a few of these systems running across Europe. I was surprised to see the reserved busway 'tracks' in Essen were still operating along the A40 in Essen during the Dec 09 snow. They were a try out for cheap trams in the 70s & 80s, the advantage being the vast space available in the rebuilt German cities.

 

Of the trialled systems in UK, few are still working (and this also applies to some in mainland Europe) due to them being rapidly obsolete and 'free' buses not! I read somewhere (a transport journal, but name escapes me) that many systems were designed to use buses of 2.3m width and nobody makes them any more (2.6m being the current standard) and that they became instantly obsolete when the fleet needed replacing.

 

The Cambridge system seems to have been going on a long time... may be there is a 2.3/2.6m issue.

 

 

Though I find them interesting as a piece of engineering (and enjoy driving them), I can't stand buses. They get lanes then leave them, they pull out on anyone, they spill diesel (lethal on a bike), They're cramped and uncomfortable, they don't go the best route to anywhere and always appear to be empty around here. Transport should be personal or be on rails! Like the meerkat - Simples!

[Richard E]

I used to work on Cambridge Business Park - the line was ripped up even along there despite the fact that the busway stopped at the main road into Cambridge by the Science Park.

 

Locals were fiercely anti and there is still a feeling in the area that the Public Enquiry was 'fixed' in favour of this project.

 

My view is that it is a giant white Elephant that is going to saddle the residents and taxpayers of Cambridge with a mighty debt to service over very many years. I used to commute along the A14 from Huntingdon to Cambridge and, although I just missed it, I do know that the introduction of average speed cameras along that road has brought a substantial improvement in traffic flow with a reduction in accidents. One example of a situation where cameras do work BUT that is on a road that is working at, IIRC, 200%+ of design capacity.

 

I would have used a rail link especially if, as suggested, it continued to link to the ECML and had a stop at the Science Park. As it was there was no way I would have exchanged my tin box for a bus.

 

The decision will be seen as a great mistake in the years to come.

[trisonic]

 

The decision will be seen as a great mistake in the years to come.

 

 

I think you may be right, there!

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

 

[giz]

 

One example of a situation where cameras do work BUT that is on a road that is working at, IIRC, 200%+ of design capacity.

 

 

 

It's not really surprising that this stretch of the A14 is so heavily overloaded. I worked on the dualing of this stretch of what was then the A604 as a student in the late 70s. In those days it was primarily a link road between the end of the then new M11 and the A1. East/west traffic in those days used the A45 (now A428) towards St Neots. When the A14 was built it was done on the cheap and used this part of the A604 as well without any further upgrades.

[chrisf]

I'm old enough to remember when the A604 between Godmanchester and Cambridge was a dangerous single three-lane carriageway and it took the death of an ambulance driver in a crash to prod the powers that be into even thinking about an upgrade.

 

Chris

[giz]

I'm old enough to remember when the A604 between Godmanchester and Cambridge was a dangerous single three-lane carriageway and it took the death of an ambulance driver in a crash to prod the powers that be into even thinking about an upgrade.

 

Chris

 

That's what it was like when I first started work there. The first thing we did was to close one lane off for the whole length. A guy used to drive up and down all day maintaining the oil lamps and replacing the squashed ones. We nicknamed him Aladdin.

 

There were a couple of fatal crashes in the roadworks in the 6 months I was there, including one involving a young graduate engineer I worked with.

[Lord-Claud-Hamilton]

I'm old enough to remember when the A604 between Godmanchester and Cambridge was a dangerous single three-lane carriageway and it took the death of an ambulance driver in a crash to prod the powers that be into even thinking about an upgrade.

 

Chris

 

Yes, so am I. We lived in Bar Hill until I was 6 ('73) and my Dad worked in St Ives for Sir Clive Sinclair. We then lived on The Bronx (North Arbury for those that don't know the area) while the A14 (as it is now) was being built. I remembre seeing 37's hauling mineral wagons along the line.

 

I also worked on the Cambridge Science Park (Napp - my Mrs still does) for 15 years and remember seeing Dutch (is that correct) Liveried 31's hauling old Hopper wagons between Barrington and Fen Drayton Pits. It's a small world....until three years ago I lived in Fen Drayton over looking those same pits!

 

The problem with a connecting the line with the ECML is the amount of new trackbed required between St Ives and Huntingdon. Perhaps if RAF Alconbury had been converted to a Freight Hub as discussed somne years ago (and again recently) it might have been worth while. But even then, freight trains from Felixstowe would have had to reverse at Cambridge.

[The Evil Bus Driver]

If they want to put guided buses along railways, here is correct the way to go about it.

 

[edcayton]

Hmmmm. So, it's a guided-hybrid-trolley-bendy-bus that straddles a standard? gauge tram/rail line. I was impressed by the way the trolley poles picked up the OH automatically. Why can't our transport chiefs look around mainland Europe and learn something from the way Johnny Foreigner does things.

Thanks for posting, most interesting to see integrated public transport. They just seem to get it so, er, right.

 

Ed

[Bernard Lamb]

Why can't our transport chiefs look around mainland Europe and learn something from the way Johnny Foreigner does things.

Thanks for posting, most interesting to see integrated public transport. They just seem to get it so, er, right.

 

Ed

 

Probably because they didn't scrap the trams back in the 60s when we decided that such things were old fashioned and had to go.

For 'getting it right' go to Edinburgh and take a look along Princes Street. I will be venturing out of Waverley with a bike next week not knowing what I will find. It changes every time. The only certainty is that I will not have to watch out for trams.

Bernard

[Welly]

In the 1950s and 60s, UK trams and trolleybuses desperately needed complete refurbishment ( look at all those Edwardian trams working all over the UK post-war! ) but there were simply no money to pay for that so the trams and trollies all had to go!

 

I noted that the video clip of the Essen duo-bus system was filmed 20 years ago and that since then those duo-buses no longer operate in Essen.

 

I do hope that the misguided busway will stand as a classic textbook example of how NOT to go about public transport improvements!

[PhilJ W]

If they want to put guided buses along railways, here is correct the way to go about it.

 

 

London Transport had a similar idea 75 years ago of running trollybuses through the Kingsway tram subway. They even built a special trollybus to operate the service. Unfortunately WW2 put a stop to it like many other things.

[wiggoforgold]

Leaving aside the technical criticisms of this monstrosity (which I entirely agree with) I think (as a former resident of Hemingford Grey (1964 - 1982) that it has completely ruined the area and it is so sad to see what has happened.

[wiggoforgold]

my Dad worked in St Ives for Sir Clive Sinclair.

You'll recognise the prototype of Diddington Mill then!

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/gallery/image/18112-corn-mill/

[jonny777]

In the 1950s and 60s, UK trams and trolleybuses desperately needed complete refurbishment ( look at all those Edwardian trams working all over the UK post-war! ) but there were simply no money to pay for that so the trams and trollies all had to go!

 

 

I dont think that is quite correct for trolleybuses, but is probably correct for trams. Bournemouth and Glasgow (to name two corporations) had trolleybuses running well into the 1960s, and many of their fleet were built in the 1950s and some were almost new.

 

The main problem as I recall was that it was an expansion of the infrastructure to serve the new post-war housing estates; that was the expensive bit. With a diesel bus, the town/city could purchase it and could employ it immediately on virtually all of the bus routes, new and old. But a new trolleybus could not go anywhere without the wires. Not only that, but they had difficulty maneouvering around any obstructions such as road works.

 

 

The 'modernisation' attitude (that which brought us the new Euston and the proposed demolition of St Pancras) of the times was also partly to blame. The 1960s was considered "the space age", and virtually no one wanted to be associated with 'yesterday's' transport.

 

John