Flooding - 18 February

It was still flooded between Fen Drayton and Swavesey when I looked yesterday. But the water is now quite shallow, and there were signs that it might be possible to cycle through. I didn’t try it though.

Now the Great Ouse has flooded again, and it’s not possible to cycle or walk from St Ives Park & Ride to Fen Drayton Lakes.

Flooding continues - 13 February

A picturesque scene. The Cambridgeshire Lake District.

But not so good when you realise that the busway cycle track is still under water between Fen Drayton and Swavesey.

Flooding update - 22 January

The flood gates are closed across the cycle track.

Cycle route between Fen Drayton and Swavesey.

Water still covering the track near St Ives.

These photos were taken today (22 Jan) to illustrate that the cycle track is still flooded. The gates are closed across the track near St Ives Park & Ride and Swavesey, which should indicate to walkers and cyclists not to proceed any further. But still there are nutters who risk their safety by walking and wheeling their bikes along the grassy strip next to the bus track.
It looks as if it will soon be possible to cycle from St Ives to Fen Drayton Lakes, as the water level is rapidly dropping. You might be able to get through on foot if wearing wellies.
East of Fen Drayton Lakes, the flooding seems likely to persist for sone time (se David Parish’s posts). But it is possible to avoid this stretch by detouring via gravel tracks to Swavesey, and rejoin the busway there.

Why does the track take so long to drain?

Thanks to Andrew's last post showing how flooded the track still is. I agree this will take a while to drain (typically at least a month when this stretch floods)

But why?

I observe as follows:

With reference to this RSPB leaflet with map:

The stretch that takes ages to drain is where the busway passes between the Trout Pond and Ferry Lagoon.
Typically this section is not the first to flood. Rather the river has to very high before it does flood. But when it floods the water gets trapped.

Covills drain is not marked on the map - it lies just east of the Trout Pond, and runs south to north and drains into the Great Ouse through a flood control gate. Cyclists can identify it by the wedge shaped chunk of concrete across the path where it crosses the east bank of the drain.

When the water gets very high, Covills drain overflows its west bank, pouring water into the Ferry Lagoon. This happened 2 weeks ago.
The observant will note that the west bank of Covills drain is deliberately lower than the east bank (there is only one concrete wedge, not two). This is so the lakes flood in preference to Swavesey.

There is a culvert under the busway just west of the west bank of Colvills drain, balancing the Ferry Lagoon and the Trout Pond. So when water flows into the Ferry Lagoon, it passes through this culvert, and raises the Trout Pond which overflows and floods this stretch of the path.

But how does it drain?  Once the level has got back down to the top of the Colvills drain bank - very slowly.

If you walk along the east bank of Colvills drain about 50-100m north of the busway, you will see across the drain the end of a pipe, which drains the surplus water from Ferry Lagoon through the west bank back into Colvills Drain.

As far as I know (but I am happy to be corrected if anyone knows better) this is the total drainage from the Ferry Lagoon + Trout Pond back towards the river.

This is not very big to drain all that trapped water down by about 1m.  And as the draining continues, the difference in height falls, so the flow through the pipe drops too.

The above photo, taken 31 December, shows water coming out of the pipe - which is completely submersed under water.

This photo, I took a few years ago, looking down on the outlet, with the water lower, shows the flap over the end of the pipe, to prevent water flowing back into the Ferry Lagoon from Covills drain. The flap is pushed open when the water flows in the intended direction, as it is here.

But why is this flow so restricted?

Cycle track flooding update

This photo, taken from the bus this morning, shows the busway cycle track is under water between Swavesey and Fen Drayton. From past experience, the water is likely to remain here for some time.

Saturday 11th January - still flooded.

Thirsday 16th January - now flooded between St Ives Park & Ride and Fen Drayton Lakes, as well as from Fen Drayton to Swavesey.

Another weekend, another diversion

The title of last week's post was rhetorical. For lo, another weekend closure and diversion looms.

On September 14 and 15 the Busway will be closed between St Ives and Swavesey. The nature of the diversionary route - the lack of public roads (!) - means that the Fen Drayton Lakes stop cannot be served at all.

No details have been given of the revised timetable that will result from this quite extensive diversion.

Bicycle thefts at Swavesey

A contributor to a Cyclescape discussion thread reports signs of multiple cycle thefts at the Swavesey Busway stop last week. And also noted an absence of CCTV monitoring the cycle racks.

Swavesey Busway Stop

There’s a notice up at Swavesey Busway Stop saying that it will be closed on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th September, presumably for trackworks on the busway. Passengers are advised that buses will be diverted to use the nearby bus stops on Over Road. Presumably this means that journeys will take longer, and may result in the timetable becoming chaotic. So allow extra time for your journey.

Busway diversions - weekends in February

A series of closures of the Busway has been announced for February. Details are as follows:

3/4 February - Fen Drayton Lakes Stop - Buses will be unable to serve this stop - No Alternative is avaliable

10/11 February - Swavesey - To be confirmed

17/18 February - Longstanton - Delays of 10-15 minutes - No stops missed

Further closures are expected, and details will be avaliable in due course

Apologies for the late notification.

One of the County Council's news releases (there were two, posted in different places) on this weekend's closure - and one which only went out on 3 February - refers to the "request stop Holywell Ferry" [sic]. Curiously, the corresponding announcement on the Busway web pages refers to it by its correct name. Puzzling.

The next two closures/diversions have yet to be confirmed by the County Council - so should, I guess, be marked "subject to alteration".

UPDATED 8 February: The County Council has now published its plans for the remainder of the month - and provided an explanation as to why the work is being carried out. Here's that information:
https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/weekend-guided-busway-repairs-planned/

Closure this weekend - Groundhog Day?

Just three months after the last weekend closure of the Busway between St Ives and Swavesey (see the 14 June post if you need a reminder!), the same stretch is again to be completely closed this coming weekend, according to Stagecoach. As on the last occasion, "extra buses and drivers will be used to minimise the delay although slight delays are expected to occur".

The closure takes place on Saturday and Sunday, 2 and 3 September.

There's no further information about this (or, indeed, any mention at all) on the County Council's Busway web page. However, a spokesman told the Cambridge News: "The busway track will be closed just to the north of the Swavesey stop next weekend while an issue is fixed." And for those who walk or cycle alongside the busway track, all is not lost: "Pedestrians and cyclists should still be able to pass.” What the "issue" causing the closure actually is, that information wasn't in the Cambridge News report.

If anyone is passing by the site over the weekend, I'm sure readers would be interested to learn anything you might be able to find out about the work being undertaken. One correspondent reports that there's a spot "just east of Fen Drayton halt where a beam set has already been excavated and replaced, appears to be a fresh soil heap." Could the County Council's "just to the north of the Swavesey stop" be the same location as my correspondent's "just east of Fen Drayton"?
 

Busway closed for a while - now reopened

Earlier this morning, Stagecoach tweeted that the Busway was closed between St Ives Park & Ride and Swavesey, "due to an over turned car". They've since reported that the track is now fully reopened. If anyone has further information (like, most obviously, why there was an overturned car on the busway...) please feel free to add a comment to this post.

[This post has been edited by the later addition of the following]

The Cambridge News has provided more information, mostly based on a police report. The incident took place just after 6 a.m., at Meadow Lane in St Ives. No explanation yet provided as to how it happened.

Transport hubs propsed for Swavesey and Oakington

Six new 'transport hubs' have been proposed in an attempt to persuade car users to switch to buses for travel into Cambridge city centre. This includes hubs ( i.e. car parks)  at Swavesey and Oakington linking to the guided busway. The scheme is part of the greater Cambridge City Deal.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/six-new-transport-hubs-could-12315068

Partial closure/diversion this weekend

Stagecoach report that the Busway track will be closed between St Ives and Swavesey this weekend - Saturday and Sunday, 27-28 August. Buses will use the authorised diversionary route between the St Ives Park and Ride and the Swavesey Buway stop (i.e. the A1096, A14, and the village road from the Trinity Foot through Swavesey - and reverse for services heading towards St Ives). Fen Drayton Lakes stop will not be served during this period.

I've been unable to find any announcement about this on the County Council's Busway site. And a technical glitch means that it seems to be the case that you can only find it on the Stagecoach website if you're using a mobile device (running Android? or perhaps it's only visible to Chrome users? or something...). I was at St Ives Station Road and FenDrayton stops yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) and there was nothing to warn of this imminent diversion. Not exactly great customer service!

Thanks to Simon Norton for spotting this.

Respect Signs

It has not taken long for a "Respect" sign to get modified.

Two at Swavesey have been modified by somebody who clearly feels that they omit to encourage respect between all users - horse riders, cyclists, pedestrians and dog walkers - on what is officially a bridleway.

Modified sign at Swavesey.

Bridleway signs

Signs on (and off) the busway

(1)
In the last week several of these notices have appeared along the length of the busway maintenance track / bridle path / cycleway:

Presumably  asking cyclists to show respect for pedestrians and vice versa.

But most of the signs are mounted high up. About the height of horse riders heads. Is it asking horse riders to show respect for pedestrians and cyclists? Seems unlikely.

A search finds this Twitter article https://twitter.com/gnomeicide/status/574853452414738432  where Richard Taylor says “Cllrs to spend public health cash putting “RESPECT” signs on Cambridge guided busway cycle/pedestrian path”.  Obviously relevant - but I have not found any Council minutes about this.

Anybody know any more?

 (2)

When the busway was built, it was stated that National Cycle Route 51 would be re-routed along the busway. Sure enough, signs soon appeared along the busway with the number 51 on them.

But for the next 3½ years the old signs remained on the route through Fenstanton, Fen Drayton, Swavesey, Longstanton, Oakington, Girton. A few weeks ago these were finally changed to local cycle route 24:

(3)

A new sign has been put up at Swavesey bus-stop by the Swavesey Meridian Magazine, showing a map of the village, and some places of interest.

(4)

I recently found this busy signpost 2/3 of the way through the "public footpath" connecting Trumpington to the busway through the allotments:

The top sign clearly says "Public Footpath". But the bottom one shows cyclists and pedestrians equally and points ahead to the busway (and cycle racks at the bus stop). Are cyclists allowed to ride on this one?

New cycle spaces at Swavesey and Longstanton

New cycle parking spaces have been installed at Longstanton Park & Ride recently.
This week, the cycle storage area at Swavesey is being enlarged.

Swavesey Busway Stop - cycle storage area

Busway ticket machines - an update

It looks as though repairs are on the way for the non-functioning ticket machines on the busway. These notices at Histon and Swavesey say 'This machine is currently being re-commissioned, and is not in use' which I interpret as saying something is happening.

Histon

Swavesey

Broken ticket machines

Not sure how long this machine has been out of action, but I first noticed it a few days ago. I'm referring to the ticket machine at the Science Park stop on the busway. It's now boxed up like its mates at Histon and Swavesey. Those two have been out of action for the best part of a year. Isn't the Council going to fix them?

Swavesey Half Marathon

The Swavesey Half Marathon will be using part of the busway cycle track near Fen Drayton on Sunday 2 March 2014.
Details of the event, including a map of the route, can be found here.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Swavesey-Half-Marathon-run-confirmed-for-second-year-20140115050018.htm

New Cycleways

Cambridgeshire County Council have published details on their website of new cycleways - planned very soon. Two likely to be of interest to readers of this blog are:

The A1096 St Ives: Foot and cycleway will run along the St Ives A1096 bypass from the Meadow Lane junction to St Ives Business park. This will connect to the busway via existing cycleway along Meadow Lane and the Park & Ride site. Construction is expected to start this month, and be completed by end of February!

In Swavesey, the Swavesey to Buckingway Business Park Cycleway will run from the south end of the village to Buckingway Business park, and extend over the existing A14 flyover to the roundabout at Cambridge Services. Construction is expected to start in February and be completed June 2014.

Both will have 2.5m wide track (where possible), separated from the road by a 1m grass verge.

Further afield, Other cycleways also planned are Wandlebury to Babrham Research Park and A505 to Granta Park.

The last 3 here are "being funded by Cambridgeshire County Council's successful bid this summer to the Department for Transport for £4.1m from the Cycle City Ambition Fund."