The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway (CGB), branded the busway (but colloquially known as "the Guided Bus"), is a public transport scheme connecting the population centres of Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives in the English county of Cambridgeshire. Planning and construction for the Cambridge-Huntingdon Rapid Transit Scheme (CHRT) took place during the 2000s finalising in a decision to develop a 25-mile (40 km) transport corridor consisting of road improvements, bus lanes and bus priority measures, of which 16 miles (25 km) is dedicated and exclusive-use guided busway.
The guided sections are notable for their length; making the scheme the longest operational guided busway in the world, overtaking the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia. Specially adapted buses are used—on the busway the bus driver does not need to hold the steering wheel as the concrete guideway controls the direction that the bus travels in.
The reserved bus-only sections make up 16 miles (25 km) of the route, and are in two parts, one either side of the centre of Cambridge. The northern length of dedicated busway runs parallel to the A14 road, using the course of the Cambridge and Huntingdon railway that closed to passengers in 1970 and runs through the former railway stations at Oakington, Long Stanton and Histon. A southern section connects Cambridge railway station, Addenbrooke's Hospital and the park and ride site at Trumpington.
Construction began in March 2007 with an intended opening date of April 2009. Following a number of delays, an independent review was announced on 21 September 2010, while Cambridge MP Julian Huppert described the project as a "white elephant". The original cost estimate of £150 million rose to £181 million by December 2010.
The busway was handed over to the County Council in April 2011 and opened on 7 August 2011. It forms part of the system of transport in Cambridge and the latest in a list of guided busways and BRT systems in the United Kingdom.
Based on contracts signed with the promoters, Cambridgeshire County Council, bus services are operated by Stagecoach in Huntingdonshire and Whippet Coaches who collectively have exclusive use of the route for a period of five years—in exchange for providing a minimum service frequency between the times of 07:00 and 19:00 each week day.
Read more about Cambridgeshire Guided Busway: Overview, Route, Services, Construction Costs
Famous quotes containing the word guided:
“My belief is that no being and no society composed of human beings ever did, or ever will, come to much unless their conduct was governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)