The route will be built using the old railway line. It will start in Houghton Regis where it will go by road to the park and ride at Portland, the old cement works. It will then continue to the White Lion retail Park, onto Toland Road, and then Clifton Road for the Luton Town Football Club, then onto Luton Station where it will stop come off the busway and go by road into Luton, then to Napier park and onto the Airport, Turn around and come back again. Hooray, £87 million for what is a glorified by-pass. It would have cost a lot less to open a railway link, and then we could get to The Airport, London and beyond. Or use it as a by-pass for the northern end of Dunstable, either way you could save millions, and as we need a by-pass for the southern end of Dunstable we could have paid for both. Well the government have voted with Luton and Dunstable lose out again. will this end up as a £87 million, white elephant? or will it surprise us all?. As it is well on the way, I hope all us doubting Thomas's are wrong because if we are not, what an expensive eyesore we will be left with, while the Luton councilors that want this will have moved on. I assume by car or by train, as I am sure not one of them will be using the busway. I am sure neither they or their constituents even know where Dunstable is let alone been there.
College Road was originally built for ease of access for buses to get to the White Lion Retail Park from Dunstable, complete with barriers to prevent cars using it as a by pass. However this did not last long and it is now used by all traffic. These pictures are where the railway line, cross College Road. At least College Road got resurfaced.
This set is the building works in Church Street, I pass these everyday going to work. A New Railway bridge was built for the railway line in the 1960's as it ran from Dunstable to Hatfield. It was last used for passenger service in 1965, but continued to be used for freight traffic up until 1989; we still had some heavy industry at that time, Vauxhall Motors, Blue Circle Cement, and others . Also some special passenger trains and rail tours operated during this time, hence my username and my flickr link. The line was moth balled and fell in to disuse. Several groups have tried and failed to get the rail link re-established, but we lived in hope. Until Luton Councilors came up with the bus scheme, after seeing the one in Cambridge. Unfortunately the group most affected i.e Dunstable, where mostly ignored, a few groups and evenings where laid on to discuss it, but after still getting a resounding no from Dunstable. Central Government gave the go ahead.
The Bridges in Dunstable to Luton Station where pulled down and the tracks dug up, we had reached the point of no return.
Duke Minster Estate was built on the site of Bagshaws engineering works, in the 1980's. Bagshaws dated from 1909 and closed in 1972, the distinctive half timbered office building burned down in 1978. It is to be demolished to build houses and retail units. Some of the units on the Duke Minister Estate are still used and hopefully they will have new units close to where they are.
I surpose they are going to need someone to use the 'Waste Of Money' busway.
The last section is the footbridge carrying Dog Kennel Walk over the route, built so that people could cut through from Dunstable Town Centre to Houghton Regis, close to Houghton Square. It has been park land which has been nibbled away at; tennis courts for the recreation centre, then the new theatre complex was built, with new homes and car parking. There is still a nice size left for people to sit on a sunny day and watch the Luton Busway be built.
I will keep you posted on what is happening;
it is a case of just wait and see.
An excellent article. How I detest Busways. I like buses, but why we have to have a busway on an old railway line, which then, for some reason, needs extensive infrastructure "improvements", beats me. Especially when the railway was built to handle 100 ton locomotives and trains. I suspect brown envelopes are involved...the whole thing stinks, just like the Cambridge project.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Basically Dunstable needs a by-pass, we don't say yes to the busway we don't get the by-pass. It's called blackmail.
DeleteAwesome article. Busways are cool if they're an improvement to an existing bus network on new alignments - for instance I'd support one running down the middle of a dual carriageway or through a housing estate. But in this case reinstating the railway was the right thing to do and the busway will not address the transport needs of the area properly. It's a waste of a good alignment.
ReplyDeleteThanks MK Tom sorry it took a while for me to get back to you.
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