Is there no end to the diversions?

SO,...yet again there's a Busway closure this weekend - this one's between Oakington and Longstanton and will last all day Saturday and Sunday.

The County Council's announcement claims that "all services will be running as normal", but as the diversionary route takes several minutes longer than the direct Busway route, it's hard to take this statement at all seriously. Indeed, one wonders why the County Council feel it's necessary to make this sort of false statement Wouldn't passengers - or those who haven't given up in disgust following a summer of closures and diversions - rather be given accurate, reliable and, above all, truthful information, rather than this misleading spin? Feel free to offer your thoughts in the Comments!

NB: the closure applies equally to buses, cyclists and pedestrians. And, presumably, horses as well.

Not good enough, Stagecoach!

The busway is closed this weekend between Oakington and Girton Crossing, for maintenance, and buses are being diverted.

The notice published on Stagecoach’s website advises Oakington passengers wishing to travel to Cambridge to use the Citi 6, or to board at Histon Busway Stop or Longstanton Park & Ride.

This is not good enough.

Why can’t Stagecoach designate a couple of temporary stops in Oakington for the duration of the closure?

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/service-updates/serviceupdatesarticle?SituationId=ID-27/09/2018-16:00:31:934

Whippet, on the other hand, have very helpfully advised their passengers:  ‘If you wish to board at Oakington please wait on Station Road at a safe point close to The Busway.’

Stagecoach could easily do the same.

http://www.go-whippet.co.uk/diversions-and-known-disruptions/

Busway diversions this weekend 23 September

Stagecoach have announced that, due to the part closure of the Busway Track between Longstanton and Oakington, their busway service will be diverted. No stops will be missed but buses will be delayed due to the extra travel time required.

On Sunday buses will be departing Cambridge 8 minutes earlier than stated on the timetable.

Customers are asked to allow extra travel time to there journeys

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/service-updates/serviceupdatesarticle?SituationId=ID-20/09/2018-09:19:29:100

Busway diversions - weekends in March

Details have now been posted of this month's weekend diversions on the Busway.

In summary:

9-10 March: Between Longstanton and Oakington. But no changes to the stops served.
17-18 March: Between Histon and Milton Road, and with changes to pick up and set down locations
24-25 March: Between Histon and Milton Road, and with changes to pick up and set down locations

The maintenance track remains open at all times.

All services are affected. It's reasonable to assume that these diversions will involve extended journey times around the blockages, but as there's no mention of them on either the Stagecoach or Whippet websites, there's no further information about these. Unlike engineering works on the railways, the bus companies never issue revised timetables, so if you need to be somewhere at a specific time (a railway station, for example!), you're left to do the calculations yourself.

Further details are now available (at rather short notice) on the County Council website.

Greenery (again)

Less than four weeks ago this blog carried comments by Paul Verbinnen on verge cutting along one section of the busway, the destruction of wildflowers and the lack of litter collection before any cutting took place.

Elsewhere, though, it's a lack of maintenance which has been causing problems. The Cambridge News reports the views of regular cyclist David Palmer that the rural cycle routes leading into the city are in a dreadful state. Included in his criticisms are the Busway between Histon and Oakington (Mr Palmer is a Histon resident), where overhanging brambles “pose a risk at face level" and weeds obscure the ground-level reflectors (something, without undertaking any research whatsoever, I seem to recall someone on this blog - or in the Comments - anticipating would be a problem when they were first installed).

Follow this link for the full story.

Cutting verges and shredding litter

For several weeks the verges of the guided busway have been looking fantastic, with a fine show of wild flowers. But it seems the Cambridgeshire County Council is now starting to trim the verges.

This blog has been contacted by Paul Verbinnen who writes about 'the wide scale destruction of the wildflowers alongside the Busway between Orchard Park and Oakington.

He says:

I understand that the Busway requires maintenance and wholeheartedly wish for more regular and meaningful maintenance, especially where the solar lights are obscured and the surface is breaking up. But it seems to me that over the last two days, 21st & 22nd July, unnecessary and excessive cutting has taken place. Whole stands of beautiful wild flowers have been destroyed and debris littered across the maintenance track. At the same time, the litter was not collected and now lies shredded and dispersed with probably ten times as much to pick up now. All in all, it looks dreadful and I’m really annoyed that some insects may have been destroyed too.

It appears that commonsense cutting of the immediate margin bordering the path has been ruled out and the maximum width selected for flailing. At the same time, the private contractors haven’t touched  the trailing brambles or protruding bushes and so the path remains narrowed. It would appear to be gross incompetence on the part of the County Council for doing unnecessary work and omitting the essential trimming. With shards of glass and metal cans now littering the banks it is only a question of time before that makes its way onto the path.

Here are two photos of the shredded litter.

Delays yesterday at Oakington

Yesterday, busway services were affected by the Wings for Life event. Two buses in each direction were held up waiting for the runners to pass. The bus I was on was 30 minutes late reaching St Ives.

Busway track repairs

If you are travelling on the busway today, you may notice that the track is closed near Histon for repair work. That section of track has been quite bumpy for some time. Between Longstanton and Oakington, and also between Oakington and Histon,  there are two other places where they've dug out some of the track ballast, presumably with a view to carrying out repairs.

But how bad is ithe busway track in reality? Will every track section have to be lifted and new rubber [ads inserted?

An article in the Wisbech Standard here suggests that it is very bad.

The busway between Trumpington and  Addenbrooke's will be closed for repairs next weekend.

Also reported in the Cambridge News here.

Flooding on busway cycle track - August 2014

A quarter-mile section of the busway cycle track is flooded between Long Stanton and Oakington. The water is only about 20cm deep and it is possible to cycle through if you go slow and don't mind getting your feet wet.

The Cambridge News has reported flash flooding in the Cambridge area including Dry Drayton, Oakington, Rampton and Bar Hill.

The flooded part of the cycle track lies close to the Beck Brook, a normally small stream flowing form Dry Drayton, through Girton  and Westwick and down to Rampton.

Track problems?

Here are a couple of photos of  'excavations' at Oakington. Is this something to do with the faulty track that we have heard about recently?

Solar lighting for busway cycle track

Some time ago it was announced that solar lights would be installed on the busway cycle track, to help guide cyclists using the route at night. Similar lights were earlier successfully trialled on other local  cycle tracks.

Focus on Bar Hill has revealed that work on installing the lights is now beginning between Orchard Park and St Ives,between Longstanton Park & Ride and Longstanton, between Oakington and Girton. This may explain the  works going on between Orchard Park and Histon yesterday evening as I returned from Cambridge on a late evening bus.

It will be interesting to see how they cope when they reach the flooded section of  track near Swavesey, and how the lights perform when submerged for weeks on end!

Also in Huntingdon & St Ives News & Crier ( February 28, page 17).

Northstowe New Town

Today's Hunts Post ( 31 October, page 21) says that building of the new town at Northstowe begins in 2013. 'Northstowe' will be on the old airfield and barracks adjacent to the guided busway between Oakington and Longstanton.

Concerns are expressed about the transport needs of creating the new town, and there is a 'call for more transport facilities to complement the guided busway'. But no specifics are mentioned except that improvements will be made to the A14/B1050 junction at Bar Hill. Those of us who are local to the Cambridge/Bar Hill/St Ives area know what a nightmare the A14 is, and the prosepect of extra traffic from Northstowe adding to the A14's congestion problems is not a pleasing one.

It seems that the next 12 months will be spent in drawing up plans for the development.

The Cambridge News gives more details. Planning permission has been granted for the 1500 houses. The golf course will be built over. There will be a school, shops, sports facility, and community centre. Good news for cyclists is that there will be a cycle way to Bar Hill.

Two local councillors express concerns about the development. Councillor Alex Riley (Longstanton) talks about the local road network is heading for total meltdown. Councillor David Reeves (Oakington)  predicted that traffic could make Northstowe a "laughing stock nationally and a disaster locally".