A guest post from Nigel Pennick
There is a recurring problem with schemes to improve public transport. It is ‘mission creep’ caused by impracticable proposals that at first glance promise to serve every need, but in reality are poorly thought out and often mere proposals that have no practical substance in them.
Practical upgrading of bus systems is put on hold while untried systems are investigated at great expense by consultants – with taxpayers footing the bill.
There is a long history of novel and failed transport proposals involving monorails, tracked hovercraft, minitrams and now very light rail. Historically, these have all failed to materialise, except on test tracks, and often the companies promoting them have ended in administration. Such proposals have always diverted attention away from realistic improvements of existing bus systems.
These novel systems always have proprietary vehicles that are incompatible with existing transport modes. Looking ‘futuristic’ and promoted by slick marketing, these systems gain the attention of planners who lose sight of their function which is to improve public transport for the majority of people. As with tramways and metros – tried and tested modes that actually work – there is a limited application of tracked systems to specific routes in large cities. Elsewhere, buses serve the public well, if they are run properly. The danger of using novel systems, if they even get as far as being built, is that there will be no operational or maintenance support and no possibility of obtaining spare parts or new vehicles, if the companies making them go out of business or cease manufacturing the track and vehicles, as has happened with some schemes.
Unrealistic plans that have no chance of attracting the necessary funds for construction and operation seem to appear every few years. Cambridge’s planners spent millions in 1991 for a tram scheme that never materialised, in the last few years the Cambridge Autonomous Metro (CAM) was a money pit overseen by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, and now, in 2023 another tram scheme has been put forward. Both the abortive CAM and the 2023 tram plan require extensive tunnelling. Realistically, this will not happen as no public transport tunnels have been built in the UK outside London since the 1970s (Merseyrail and Tyne-Wear Metro).
What all of these novel systems have in common is expensive infrastructure, often very intrusive, as in the case of overhead minitrams or monorails. In addition to their dubious utility, operating costs and reliability over the lifetime of a system is rarely considered.
The long planning process, disruption caused by protracted construction, and visual intrusion are further reasons why such systems rarely get past the planning stage. Sadly, the cost of planning eats away at funds that could better be spent on improving bus frequency and service reliability. But our planners insist on diverting attention away from practical solutions for spectacular vanity projects that look good in online promotional material.
I find it tiresome to see so much effort expended for so few results. Is it some sort of systemic failure among British transport planners to be fascinated with fanciful proposals whose proponents claim are the solution to all problems? It is time for public transport planners to pay attention to current needs.
Appendix: some examples of novel, untried and failed systems
Coventry Very Light Rail
The latest expensive experiment
Note how the now-cancelled Cambridge Autonomous Metro vehicle proposed in 2021 is similar to the very light rail vehicle (on rails) proposed for Coventry. See: TDI UNVEILS CAMBRIDGE AUTONOMOUS METRO CONCEPT
Birmingham cable car
Read more on Birmingham’s aborted schemes: Five wacky travel schemes that never happened in Birmingham
Sheffield Minitram monorail system
Long before Supertram, Sheffield planned a Minitram monorail system. Back in the 1970s, Sheffield Metropolitan District Council explored methods to better connect various parts of the city centre.
Read more on the Sheffield Guide blog…
Sydney Monorail (abandoned)
The Sydney Monorail is an example of a built system that was soon abandoned.
Read more: ‘Rubbish in our sky’: Sydney monorail station left in limbo after seven years
One novel transport ‘solution’ that failed spectacularly…
Cambridge Area Bus Users never took a position of support, nor of opposition to CAM, nor other schemes. We have always made two pro-bus points:
- if adequately funded, and properly co-ordinated, bus service improvements can give a quick win in serving public transport objectives, and
- no tram, metro, light rail or heavy rail service can serve every town, every village, every neighbourhood; buses (like that beer) reach where other modes cannot.
Cambridge Area Bus Users 