Richard E

To add to the previous post: 1. The main bus operator has said they will not run busses on the guideway once their initial contracted period expires due to the expectation of heavy losses due to a lack of passenger traffic. 2. One of the main sources of passengers, the new township of Northstowe, is currently on hold and is likely to be built at a much later date than originally envisaged. A fresh round of planning applications is expected some time in 2011. Original proposals would have had building well under way by now. 3. Latest cost estimate £181m. 4. First services are approaching 2 years overdue. 5. A new contractor has already been named by Cambs CC to correct the defects that BAM Nuttall say do not exist including expansion joints that direct surface run off straight on to structural steel on the Ouse bridge. 6. Toad tunnels are to be built on one section due to the level of road kill already experienced on a section of the unopened track. 7. As suggested there were no immediate rail links available to the ECML at Huntingdon which, in any case, is heavily used with little or no spare capacity for additional traffic to north or south. This would mean the proposed rail service would have been along a branch line with no prospect for through traffic without substantial and very expensive development at the western end to make it a through route.

OK - I stand corrected - lightest 'modern' pannier and I was not counting the pair that made it into NCB service in terms of last withdrawal since I was thinking of BR withdrawals when writing - I must ensure clarity of posting in future 1607 and 1600 were the NCB locos, my research agrees with The Stationmaster that 1607 was the last one scrapped - there is, of course, one (1638) that has been preserved on the KESR.

Apparently 1608 was re-allocated to 85B (Gloucester Horton Road) prior to withdrawal. She was withdrawn on 30th September 63 and disposed of at Swindon Works in November of the same year. A total of 8 16xx Panniers were withdrawn at 85B. The original shed allocation was 10 of the class. She was, as I think has already been said, the only 16xx allocated to Newton Abbot. They had the advantage of being the smallest and lightest Panniers built even to the extent of being built to a reduced loading gauge. One of its classmates, 1669, was the last GWR designed engine to be built at Swindon. 1646 and 1649 found their way to work the Dornock branch in Scotland in the mid 1950's. First of the class withdrawn was 1603 in June 1959 when just 9 years old, it was cut up at Cohens apparently having spent it's working life in Wales. the last was 1628 which was disposed of by Cashmores in January 1967 after withdrawal in September 1966.

Announced on local radio today that the first buses are to run next week However these runs are just to 'prove' that the traffic lights and other bits of the infrastructure actually work

60054 has been in Doncaster up yard for the last couple of mornings. Yesterday it was on a ballast working and today it was just sat in the yard throat ticking over.

60049 berthed at Peterborough this morning.

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.

That Escort body shell is worth some serious money if it is any sort of decent condition! Especially so as it is a 2 door. It started life as an 1100 or 1300 though.

And Cambridge has plenty of these rising bollards as well. Been one or two nasty accidents where folk have tried driving through by tailgating a bus or taxi! They are spreading as well, York has some, so does Peterborough ......