Autonomous vehicles - trials no longer to take place on the Busway

Readers with  long memories - and a wider interest in public transport developments, perhaps - may recall the plan for a trial of autonomous vehicles to utilise the southern section of the Busway. According to our last blog post on the subject, the first paying passengers were expected this year.

Things have changed! In a brief report to the September meeting of the Greater Cambridge Partnership Joint Assembly it was announced that the trial will no longer take place on the Busway, but will instead utilise the University's West Cambridge site. Other aspects of the trial have also changed - not just the timeframe (only to be expected in the current circumstances) but the number of vehicles being produced (halved from 6 to 3).

The Busway had been selected because it offered the prospect of filling the early morning/late evening/weekend voids in the timetables for scheduled bus services. Although there has been some filling of these voids in the past 6 months, there is no suggestion in the Joint Assembly report that the switch away from the Busway was due to lack of potential benefit.