Bedfordshire's Busway Won't Struggle Like Cambridge's

12 August 2011, 11:42

Heart has been told assured today - the Luton and Dunstable's Busway won't suffer the same problems as the new St Ives-Huntingdon-Cambridge Busway.

Concerns were raised when contractors for the Cambridgeshire Busway, BAM Nuttall, were accused of failing to fix a series of structural issues including drainage.  New contractors were brought in to complete the route, £30m over-budget and 2 years late. A legal case between BAM Nuttall and Cambridgeshire County Council's pending.

Work on the Luton and Dunstable Busway, also be BAM Nuttall, to serve Luton and Dunstable is underway - and was originally due to be completed by 2012, but has slipped back to early 2013.

Luton Transport Councillor Roy Davis told Heart they have had a small delay in fine-tuning the blue-print plan "Wise to do that early rather than late, and I think that will be a benefit so we're going to be a few months late, what matters is getting it right - we ARE going to get it right and therefore we're doing it the proiper way".

We asked Cllr Davis if he was worried by the massive overspend and severe delay in getting BAM Nuttall (Luton & Dunstable Busway builders), getting the Cambridge route open and he told us: "Part of the benefit of letting someone else do it first - they can have any problems and we've just watched what they've done so we can avoid. We've been following very closely what's been going on in Cambridge. We've taken all the necessary steps to make sure we don't encounter all the problems they did."

Find out more about the Cambridge Guided Busway

Find out more about the Luton Dunstable Busway (from Luton Borough Council)