Cambridge busway wins praise

The belated opening of the Cambridgeshire guided busway last week attracted some media attention, most of which focused on the lengthy delays in getting the project up and running. “We are sorry to announce that the bus due on platform one is running approximately two years late,” The Independent said on August 7, for example. “Cambridge travellers will today finally be able to use a long-awaited tram-style service that has been marred by mammoth delay and… a £64m overspend.”

Local paper The Cambridge News, however, covered the opening of the busway in a wholly positive light after sending reporter Leanne Ehren to try out the new service. “I do not do public transport… so, on being signed up as the lucky News reporter to ride the controversial guided busway I was not impressed – especially as I suffer with travel sickness,” Ehren began, unpromisingly. “But I think I have been converted. If all buses were as smooth and fast as the guided busway then I would hand in my driver’s license right now.” “The ride along the 16 miles of concrete track from St Ives to Cambridge was so smooth!” she continued. “I could not believe it. It even felt better than being on a train as you didn’t have the jerking chug that threatens to give you whiplash as you pull out of the station… I am happy to report that not once when on the busway did I feel overcome with travel sickness, and so I am scoring the ride 10 out of 10 for comfort and enjoyment. If only all public transport could glide through towns and cities like this.”

Ehren’s enthusiasm for the new busway was not reflected in the online comments on the article on The Cambridge News’ website, however, every single one of which was negative in tone. “The majority of the journey time is wasted stuck in traffic like any other bus,” claimed one reader, whilst another observed that: “I have no problem with a guided busway per se, and I am quite sure it delivers an ‘amazingly smooth ride’. The problem as I see it is that this does not go anywhere useful. Has the council actually studied how many people travel from Huntingdon to Cambridge?”

“The super smooth busway service is flawed because the trackway ends at the Science Park, simple as that,” a third Cambridge News reader added, whilst a fourth said, “The big ticket trips – principally Huntingdon and St Ives to Cambridge – are not improved by the busway except when the A14 has a serious problem (which is nowhere near as often as people make out)… The whole problem with the busway is that any significant improvement it makes is only for an insignificant number of passengers.”