Guided Bus Row Set To Drag On Costing £9.5M In Interest

Cambridgeshire County Council’s long running dispute over the guided bus project looks set to drag on for another three years costing £9.5 million in interest.*

A resolution of the case with contractor BAM Nuttall was expected to take place in 2013-14 but has now been pushed back to 2014-15.

The Conservative administration expects by this time to have won 100 per cent of the court case and received a full settlement - including the cost of these interest payments plus an additional charge on top - from BAM Nuttall.

But the delay means that the total cost of interest payments on borrowing money to meet the overspend on the project will rise from £7.9 million to £9.5 million – an increase of over £1.5 million. To date the interest stands at £3.7 million.

Liberal Democrat leader Kilian Bourke said: "These new figures confirm that the final decision on whether the council will get its money back has been pushed back even further. Unfortunately the council is paying a high price in the meantime: just paying off the interest on the borrowing is expected to cost the same amount of money over the next three years as a one per cent increase in council tax would provide.

"These figures must raise wider concerns about the £250 million of prudential borrowing the Tories are planning to spend on major projects. The abandonment of their wrong-headed austerity drive is good news, but do they have the basic competence to keep these investments on time and on budget?  The financial penalties for failing to do so could be severe.

"I hope that the Conservatives are right and they win 100 per cent of the court case otherwise local people will be picking up the tab for years to come."

*Note: If the council lost the court case outright, the cost of paying off the interest on the prudential borrowing would come to £21m.  This "100% loss" figure remains unchanged.

Councillors Throw Light On Cycle Path Safety Fears

A campaign has been launched calling for better lighting along a stretch of the guided busway cycle track in Cambridge after a spate of accidents.

Cyclists have been injured while riding on the cycleway and others, especially women and the elderly, fear for their personal safety on dark stretches of the cycle path.

Cambridge City Councillors, Amanda Taylor and Andy Blackhurst and Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Caroline Shepherd are calling for urgent action before anyone is seriously hurt.

They have launched a petition asking Cambridgeshire County Council to install lighting along the cycle path in Queen Edith’s and Trumpington.

Cllr Taylor, who represents Queen Edith’s said: “The cycleway is well-used and very much appreciated but the lack of lighting of most of the route poses a serious safety risk.

“We want to encourage cyclists to make use of the cycle path but at the same time, we have to make sure they are safe.”

Cllr Shepherd, who represents Trumpington said: “Residents are very worried by the lack of lighting. They don’t feel safe riding along there in the dark and there have been a number of accidents.

“Safety on the cycle path could be improved by separating cyclists and pedestrians and putting up signs but priority has to be given to the lighting.”

The petition can be found here: http://epetition.cambridgeshire.public-i.tv/epetition_core/community/petition/1772

Whippet Guided Buses to stop on Milton Road

Finally; some good news as a result of the Guided Bus for people in the North of Cambridge!


When the Guided Bus finally starts running (scheduled on the 7th August) Milton Road will get a new bus service. Whippet coaches have agreed that their hourly service along Milton Road will stop at the Arbury Road/Union Lane junction.

The Monday to Saturday services will start at 0816 and run until 1816 southbound taking 10 minutes to get to the city centre and a further 9 to the railway station where they will stop. Northbound, the buses will stop every hour from 1003 until 1903 taking 5 minutes to get to the Science Park and a further 20 to get to St Ives via Histon, Oakington, Longstanton and Swavesey. On Sundays, services are every 2-3 hours starting after 10am and finishing before 7pm.

Click here for the whippet timetable.

Earlier today, Cllr Kevin Wilkins met Peter Lee, the Director of Whippet Coaches to welcome the news and discuss details. Mr Lee agreed that Whippet buses would stop at any stop along Milton Road not just Union Lane. This is very welcome news – but County Council officials are believed to be unhappy about this!

All the buses (with green, euro 5 engines) will show up on the real-time information signs at the bus stops and on various mobile phone apps.

Cross-company tickets will be available so that passengers wishing to transfer to a Stagecoach bus for example in the city centre will be able to do so.

Despite repeated requests, Stagecoach have no plans to follow suit with stops on Milton Road.

Lib Dems welcome busway but fear huge bill for taxpayers

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have welcomed the news that the long-awaited Guided Busway will be open finally on August 7.

But they are concerned that the county’s taxpayers could pick up a huge bill for the project after fears that the total cost could creep up to as much £187 million; in a worst-case scenario local people could be liable for up to £71 million.

The Conservatives insisted from the start of the project, which is more than two years late, that "not one penny" of taxpayers’ money would be needed to pay for the busway.

With a legal battle imminent and new contractors brought in to rectify defects to meet the August deadline, however, they have now resorted to promising to “get the best deal for taxpayers”.

Liberal Democrat Highways Spokesman, Kilian Bourke said: “It will be good to see the guided bus finally up and running but at what cost to local people?"

“A string of Conservative leaders promised not to spend one penny of taxpayers' money on the project but now they are only promising to get "the best deal for taxpayers."

"The watering down of the original promise is ominous when there is £71m at stake.  I suspect this is one "best deal" that local taxpayers could do without."

Reminder: Machinery on the Busway from Today!

Just a quick reminder following on from a Press Release issued by the County Council last week; from today there is the possibility of heavy machinery being on the Guided Busway so that the County Council can lay the surface for the cycleway.

The work will take place from Milton Road out to Swavesey and on the entire Southern Section.

This was originally announced on election day so a lot of people might have missed it!

Taxpayers could pay £71m as guided bus total almost £187m

The spiralling cost of building Cambridgeshire’s Guided Busway is expected to reach almost £187 million and taxpayers cost be left to pick up a staggering £71 million.

Liberal Democrats have revealed the final figures just days after contractor BAM Nuttall handed over the project to Cambridgeshire County Council two years late.

The figure includes the cost of rectifying outstanding defects and fighting the case through the courts.

It is broken down as follows:

• £151,154,389 for the Potential Final Account to the Employer – BAM Nuttall’s settlement figure on handover.

• £29,680,331 for non-contractual costs including land and supervision.

• £5 million allowance for legal costs.

• £1 million plus for rectifying outstanding defects – although this is only a (cautious) Lib Dem estimate as the actual figure has not been calculated.

The county council has £92.5 million from central government plus £23.5 million anticipated income from developer contributions making a total of £116M to payfor the busway.

This leaves it almost £71 million short which could be left for the taxpayers to fund if the county council loses the court case. Although losing 100 per cent of the court case in unlikely, the figure shows the scale of risk which keeps growing.

Lib Dem transport spokesman, Kilian Bourke said: "The cost of the busway just keeps creeping upward.  When is it going to stop?"

"The Conservatives promised the scheme would come in at £116M and that "not one penny of taxpayers' money" would be spent on it. Now we learn that the global cost of the project, including lawyers' fees, will come to £187 million and that the local taxpayer will be liable for up to £71M if the Tories lose the court case outright.

"This is unlikely to happen but the scale of the risk is monumental and losing even part of the case could leave taxpayers massively out of pocket. i just hope the Conservatives' gamble pays off and they win the case hands down."

Cambridgeshire Guided Busway: 2 Years Late and £65M over budget

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have welcomed news that the Guided Busway contract has finally been completed and the handover of the project has occurred, exactly two years late and £65M over budget.

The project was initially supposed to open in April 2009, but is now expected to open in late Summer or Autumn of 2011 -- well over two years late -- despite strident promises from the Conservatives that the project would be operational earlier.

The contract was initially budgeted to come in at £116M in total, but the soaring overspend has risen to £181M -- £65M over the budgeted cost. The Conservative-run county council has been paying for this overspend with borrowed money, which it will have to claw back in court.

Three successive Conservative leaders (Shona Johnstone, Keith Walters and Jill Tuck) promised the people of Cambridgeshire not to spend a penny of local taxpayers money on the scheme, which Lib Dem MP Julian Huppert branded a "white elephant"; but the Conservatives have already taken over £5M out of the local transport plan to pay for the soaring costs of the project, and set aside millions more to cover lawyers' fees for fighting the court case.

In the worst case scenario, if the Conservatives lose the court case the local taxpayer would be liable for £65M.

Lib Dem transport spokesman Kilian Bourke said: "Although it is two years late and £65M over budget, I think all of Cambridgeshire will welcome the news that the project is moving forward. People are sick and tired of this saga and want to see the busway up and running as soon as possible. I hope the Conservatives will make this happen as soon as possible.

"At the same time, the real headache is just beginning. With £65M of local taxpayers money at stake in the court case with BAM Nuttall we have to hope the Conservatives are right and they win the court case hands down. If not local people will be footing the bill for this project for decades."

Labour and Conservative county councillors originally voted for the scheme; every single Liberal Democrat voted against it.

Guided Busway Local Liaison Forum - Wednesday 16 March

Not a lot of notice I'm afraid but this meeting is happening *tonight* at 7pm in the Orchard Park Community Centre.

Is it just me or is it staggering that this many months/years after the busway was supposed to open there are *still* issues that need to be resolved by the Contractors being raised at local meetings like this?!

Unfortunately I am not able to make the meeting but if there are any local issues you'd like to see raised please don't hesitate to let me know and I will pass them on. Needless to say the question "when will buses start running" will not be answered.

Documents for the meeting are attached below.

Agenda
Previous Meeting Notes/ Minutes

Guided Busway: Full Speed Testing *Soon*

For those of you who aren't avid readers of the Histon Impington Courier the following article has been published;

“We have received three independent reports .........that FULL SPEED tests on the guided busway have been planned for early December without public notice.  Parish councils have asked to be informed of the dates so people can be notified, however, it is uncertain if this will happen.   They were told that anyone who uses the guided busway track is technically trespassing.  The implication is clear - any injuries are solely the responsibility of the trespasser. 

As we all know, the unused busway has become a de-facto cycleway, walking path, and dog exercise area.  Go any day and you will see scores of people using it including many school children.  That fact is well known by all of the parties involved in the Busway Project. The lack of any signage to warn people it is unsafe means that the public has been placed in a position of unacceptable risk. 

The tests are to be carried out at 'full speed' - meaning 50-60 mph - and may begin as early as this Wednesday 1st December.   Those using the track as a cycle way may suddenly be surprised by a speeding guided bus coming up fast from behind.  Injury or death could result. 

We have been told the lack of public notice has to do with legal disputes between the busway contractors and County Council. "It's complicated" we have been told. No it's not! PUBLIC SAFETY COMES FIRST.”

Clearly this is very very alarming stuff - or would be if it was true. The County Council has released a "clarification";

“The note received from Histon and Impington Courier is incorrect and no buses are planned to run on the route this week.

BAM Nuttall need to complete the process of testing traffic signals and part of the work will be done this week - but without any buses running. BAM Nuttall has said buses will run on the route in the next couple of weeks, but as agreed with local parish councils at a Forum meeting last week, Cambridgeshire County Council will send a press release in advance and Forum members will also be informed. At the Forum meeting last week the Council initially expected BAM Nuttall to run buses later this week, but the contractor has confirmed this will be in the future.

Please note that buses have already run at full speed on every section of the Guided Busway successfully.

As has been stated throughout the project, the entire Busway route is BAM Nuttall's construction site and officially members of the public should not use the route to walk or cycle. However, as the route has been in the main complete (apart from defects that need to be corrected) for some time it would not have made sense for BAM Nuttall to block the route so people could not use the maintenance track.

The Council still expects the contractor to complete all the project by mid-January, but work will be required to fix the defects.

As the commissioning period for BAM Nuttall comes into effect people will still be able to use the maintenance track, but using the concrete track is not advisable.”

The guided busway has been a massive drain on the transport resources across the County but as it nears completion the Bus Operations are very conscious that members of the public have been using the busway as a cycleway/ dog walking ground/ etc. for the last year so it's very unlikely they think that one Monday morning they're going to be able to have buses tearing down the guideway without giving any kind of warning and not having an accident.

And despite what the original article says because it's clear the Busway has been used as something outer than a Busway for quite a while (something the County Council response seems to accept) I severely doubt that any court would put the sole blame on the "trespasser" for any accidents.

This does of course assume that buses will actually start to run;

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Stagecoach-threatens-to-run-fewer-services-due-to-delays.htm

More news will follow

The Busway Local Liaison Forum - Wednesday 24 November

Attached are the papers for the next forum meeting, which will take place on Wednesday 24 November from 7 pm at Orchard Park Community Centre.

The contractors update will be available at the meeting.

If there are any local issues that need to be raised please let one of your local Councillors know.

Agenda/ Notes

Guided Busway Problems Discussed in Cabinet

The Conservatives at Shirehall have again discussed the current stalemate on the Guided Busway. The meeting minutes are available here. The agenda and other items are available:

http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/council2.nsf/e0c624b01b2e9ade80256b14004eb73b/298394afce81eedb802577070046c665?OpenDocument

The Guided Busway starts at point 171.

You'll notice that in typical County-style point 172 excludes the press and public and count 173 presents a confidential report. It's disappointing, but perhaps understandable, that some legal issues need to be discussed in private.

Cabinet resolved to:

i) Note the progress that is being made towards sectional completion and the opening of the busway between Cambridge and St Ives and in particular, the current overall timescale from the contractor for addressing the notified defects;

ii) Confirm that the notified defects should be addressed satisfactorily before buses could run on the guideway and that whilst the maintenance track could follow the opening of the guideway, that could only be the case if a clear way forward to resolve the problems had been agreed.

iii) That a further update report should be received at the May Cabinet meeting

The one key point that I think all the Cambridge candidates in the recent election agreed on is that the money has been spent. Wisely or unwisely the money is gone. Julian Huppert joined us on the County Group calling for an independent enquiry into where the money has gone and the problems delivering the busway BUT the key point is that now we have a guideway, now we have buses, and now we need to get the service running as soon as possible while ensuring value for money for Cambridgeshire tax payers.

Guided Busway Update

On Monday morning there was an opportunity for members to hear directly from Brian Smith exactly what the current state of play is with the Guided Busway. This was a prelude to the issue being presented to Cabinet next week.

The Cabinet Agenda is accompanied by an excellent briefing note. If you want a detailed explanation of where we are and a little on how we got here then I urge you to read it. This briefing note was prepared by officers of the County Council and so is completely non-political.

In summary the remaining "big" issues are:

• River Great Ouse Viaduct (not-to-plan construction will lead to ongoing maintenance issues the Council isn't happy with)
• St Ives Park and Ride Site (surface water due to incorrect gradient being used during construction)
• Maintenance track flooding (parts of it are underwater because it seems to have been built incorrectly in a drainage ditch)
• Guideway Foundations (switching for piling to pad foundations - sinking issue?)
• Gaps between the guideway beams (summer expansion might cause issues)
• Rubber tyre infill between guideway beams (potential fire risk)

If reports in the Cambridge Evening News are correct this could drag on for another five years.

Guided Busway Secrecy and Delays

Workmen have discovered a structural threat to a crucial part of the Guided Busway network.

Cambridgeshire County Council were informed that rainwater pouring off the raised section of track on the viaduct could damage the structure and lead to it crumbling in future years. They dealt with this information by trying to keep the newly found problem a secret.

Unfortunately for them the secrecy didn't last very long.

It's disappointing to have to say this once again but the Conservative County Councils' instinct for secret meetings and back room deals is keeping the tax-paying public in the dark about exactly what their money is being spent on.

Gritting Cycleways Across The City

Whilst (hopefully!) the first hard frost in the city is still some way away preparations for dealing with severe weather are something the County Council needs to take very seriously.

Following on from complaints during last years severe weather (not to mention a number of accidents) the Liberal Democrats on the County Council raised this issue and we are pleased to announce that we have had some success: there will be some very limited gritting of Cycleways across the city for the first time this year, and rather than waiting 5 days and then gritting secondary routes, the routes will be gritted when a 5-day period of bad weather is being forecast.

However, despite a specially adapted gritter being commissioned for the new Guided Busway, the cycle-path right next to it will be left completely untreated.

It's disappointing that the Conservative-controlled County Council is doing the absolute bare minimum to support cyclists across the city - especially at a time when the City Council, County Council and even the Labour Government nationally are trying to get people out of their cars!

More Guided Busway traffic problems...

Hopefully this will be the last time I write that headline!

The team received an email from the County Council highways team about more work on the Guided Busway around Orchard Park (or Arbury Park).

The temporary lights should be gone by the weekend.

The email says:

On behalf of Cambridgeshire County Council, Busway contactor BAM Nuttall Ltd will be carrying out adjustments to the traffic signals at the junction of Kings Hedges Road and Chariot Way. At the same time permanent traffic signals will be installed here for The Busway.
Whilst carrying out some of this work, it will be necessary to operate temporary traffic lights at this junction and reduce Kings Hedges Road, Arbury Road and Chariot Way to a single lane at the approach to the temporary traffic lights.
This work will take place between 20 and 28 October 2009, from 7.30am to 6pm, however the temporary traffic lights will only be in use between 20 and 23 October 2009. They will be in place day and night.

They give contact numbers in case of problems: 01223 716 972 for the County Council, and 01954 785 200 for BAM Nuttall Ltd, the constructors.

As ever give us a call if you want more info, or this causes problems.

Using the Guided Bus from King's Hedges

In only a few months the Guided Bus will start running into the Centre of Cambridge and while the busses will not be going through the heart of King's Hedges they will be passing very close by - close enough so that if you live on the Northerly or the Easterly edges of the ward it will be quicker getting to the centre using the Guided Bus.

From Stagecoach the Day Rider ticket will be changed to cover both the Guided (as far as Oakington) and Citi busses.

Unfortunately the cross-provider tickets the Liberal Democrat group had been hoping for (i.e. tickets that allowed you to travel on either Whippet or Stagecoach) don't look like they have materialised - which in my view is a huge missed opportunity. In what I'm sure will lead to more than a bit of annoyance the ticketing system has been designed so that you need to purchase your ticket and choose your operator before the bus has arrived. So, to paraphrase Clint Eastwood; Are you feeling lucky??

The four new stops in the area are; Orchard Park (East and West), Cambridge Regional College, and the Science Park (see below);

The full map, listing all the stops in Cambridge, is available from the County Council website (click here). Ticketing and Pricing information is available either from the County Council website (here) or direct from Stagecoach or Whippet.

Guided Busway Nearing Completion

BAM Nuttall (the contractors working on the project) have told the County Council they expect to complete all the work needed on the northern section of the guided busway by the end of October 2009 at which point they will hand the busway over to the County Council who will then complete additional works (related mainly to the cycle path). The current plan then opens the Busway to the public approximately a month later.

For King's Hedges residents the nearest guided bus stop will be at the Regional Collage (pictured - Aug 2009) and running alongside it will be the new cycle way.

Hopefully now that the main construction work (at least on the northern section) has completed and buses will soon start running we should begin to reap the benefits; both for people living outside the City who need a quick and convenient way to commute in and for people living within the city who will hopefully benefit from their being less traffic and therefore less pollution.

As with so many of these grand projects time will tell.