Self-Steering Buses on "Train Tracks" | Cambridgeshire Guided Busway (World's Longest)

Maxson Goh Films buses on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway in England. At 16 miles / 25 km long, it is the world's longest guided busway system.
Specially equipped buses from manufacturers like Scania, Alexander Dennis and Volvo ply the busway.
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All footage filmed and edited by Maxson Goh aka glitchFan2428
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[@absentmindedjunk]

Nice video! If overhead wires and trolley busses were used this would be even cooler. I think they should build more of these

[@TransportNut89]

8:38 driver showing you no hands 😂

[@KenanTurkiye]

roses are red, violets are blue, trains, trams and buses come in all sorts of hue ;) my playlist #2 is about transportaion

[@MrColinTheBusDriver]

Nice Scania bus 1:51 and familiar bell

[@AmbientWalking]

Wow!

[@lahiruperera-ty9xu]

Amazing

[@glitchFan2428]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@MrColinTheBusDriver]

Interesting

[@resketless]

Quite a interesting way to auto steer during the bus way, quite dangerous if the steering wheel come off during the auto steer

[@glitchFan2428]

Yeah I'm told the wheels come off occasionally

[@waity5856]

Reading through all 5 derailments in its history, only one gives a wheel falling off as a "cause" of the incident. The reason the left guide wheel fell off, though, is due to the driver slamming into the start of a guided section at 50+mph

[@glitchFan2428]

@@waity5856 I see, the driver I spoke too about the guide wheels coming off was from the Leeds guided busway

[@1mgvideo]

Perhaps the drivers should I least rest their hands on the wheel instead of on their lap.

[@wytreeey3645]

Those guide wheels sound loud inside the bus. The tracks look nice though. How are breakdowns dealt with?

[@glitchFan2428]

I too wonder about what happens in the event of a breakdown

[@JustTrainsuk]

I live along this busway and it sure is different

[@user-oj4xm6by5b]

Did you manage to have a go on the Volvo B8L on the busway?

[@glitchFan2428]

Yes I did! There will be a video on that too :)

[@sv386a]

seeing the MCV b8R just feels so weird, like the b5lh cut at the top

[@glitchFan2428]

Hahah ye I know what you mean

[@kimxgamer]

interesting hybrid of a train track and bus in one

[@glitchFan2428]

Nyoomm

[@TheAutoPosts]

Now they can full speed?

[@durece100]

Since no cars allowed, Yes.

[@miboxcmpinto4977]

What if they have a flat ?

[@joehicks9317]

We’ve got a similar thing in Adelaide that opened back in the mid 1980s, was the longest and fastest busway in the world at the time. Had a fleet of Merc O305s and MAN SL202s in it, now just shitty K230/K280s and a lone O405NH

[@glitchFan2428]

I've always wanted to visit the Adelaide one actually , one day I will 😁

[@just10618]

Yeah all the enthusing buses across Australia are gone.

[@just10618]

Or could I say high floors

[@glitchFan2428]

@@just10618 that's a shame really. I love the B10M

[@RaffyGreen]

Yo dude are you still in Cambridge :O I live there

[@glitchFan2428]

I'm back in Manchester now, was only visiting Cambridge for a day

[@RaffyGreen]

@@glitchFan2428 oh haha okie, well lmk if you stop by at Cambridge again, maybe can meet up :)

[@michaelward2082]

On our local news they said storm Ellen was cancelled, and the next one is storm Frederico...... how do you cancel a storm?

[@feetfett]

That’s cool! Really like a train and plus, what is the route?

[@westmidlandstravels7110]

A (Trumpington P&R to St Ives), B (Cambridge to Hinchingbrooke Hospital) and C (Addenbrooke’s Hospital to Huntingdon)

[@Keyaans_Photography]

What happens if a bus breaks down?

[@glitchFan2428]

I'm assuming the buway will be closed in the direction until they can remove it

[@psgistheworstclubineurope]

Its so weird seeing the buses go through that forest

[@glitchFan2428]

Looks cool tho!

[@videonut1988]

Guided BRT?

[@glitchFan2428]

Essentially yes

[@elixier33]

It's clearly a bus.

[@psgistheworstclubineurope]

What if the wheel thing at the side breaks off

[@waity5856]

You might as well ask "What if the regular wheels fall off". Stuff goes wrong, but it's incredibly unlikely

[@gravemind6536]

Then it will no longer be a guided bus and the driver will have to control everything until the bus can safely depart the track

[@sv386a]

POV: SG north to south

[@rayhanmahmud7956]

Why?

[@Class802isGoated]

COMMENT DOWN BELOW IF YOU THINK THAT THE BUS DRIVERS OF CAMBRIDGE BUSES WERE ACTING INSANELY!

[@TheRealNAuthenticIzaria3436]

No 😂

[@elixier33]

Hardly. Why are you shouting?

[@psgistheworstclubineurope]

1:51 what bus

[@westmidlandstravels7110]

Scania N250UD/Alexander Dennis Enviro 400MMC

[@psgistheworstclubineurope]

​@@westmidlandstravels7110I didnt know the 400MMC had a Scania variant

[@westmidlandstravels7110]

@@psgistheworstclubineurope yup, there’s a Volvo B5TL variant too.

[@BusOnDiversion]

fun fact: the B8Ls never use the rear door for alighting passengers

[@glitchFan2428]

Yeah, it's designated as an emergency exit apparently

[@lemonnarc]

6:54 I am honestly more impressed at the functional bike lane lol

[@yaush_]

Why?

[@MsGalfreak]

What the most viewers here surely don't know ... this was a RAILWAY before ! So instead of dismantle and replacing the worthfull infrastructure by a completely new constructed guided bus way, it would have been much more ... - easy; - sustainable; - economically; - and attractive; ... if they had just used the existing tracks by a so-called "TRAM-TRAIN" system (like the one in Manchaster) and thus opened up the option of a new Tram system in Cambridge, at the same. ☝️🧐 🇩🇪

[@glitchFan2428]

It seems like most of these guided busway systems used to be railway lines. Or at least the Leigh guided busway in Greater Manchester was too. Interesting since as you mentioned, there are actual trams there as well.

[@Derek_S]

What they also don't know is the railway closed to passenger services over fifty years ago so there was no useful railway infrastructure left apart from the land. The buses use the guided portion to maintain a higher than average bus speed over the guided parts but can also transverse the narrow streets of Huntingdon, St Ives and Cambridge City centre at either end of the route. Something that would be impossible for any tram. The nonsense about reinstating the rail line or some kind of light rail system was proposed by some campaigners when the Busway was first proposed but rejected as completely impractical following serious analysis.

[@MsGalfreak]

@@Derek_S Thanks for your effort in providing a detailed answer. From my professional career as an urban planner, I have sufficient experience with so-called “serious analysis”. Their results often correspond to what is politically desired in the city, that pays for these studies. That trams cannot run through narrow centers is a fairy tale, often told by those, who are still addicted to the illusion of a "car-friendly city". A failed concept of the 60s and 70s. They want your citizens to believe that. In fact, trams can travel with radii of up to 18m and gradients of up to 12% without any problems. This even with a street cross-section of only 5m. Cities like e.g. Gmunden (A), Lisbon (E), Erfurt and Freiburg (GER), or Ghent (BE), are proving this day after day. Because it's not about breaking a high-speed route through an old town, but rather an absolutely normal tramway. The old rule of thumb applies here in Germany ... "Where an articulated Bus can run through, Trams can also operate without any problem." However, the tide has now changed in Cambridge as well, because it's confirmed that trams are significantly cheaper than buses, on routes with high ridership. I know this. Camebridge is the twin town of Heidelberg. Now, delegations from there shuttle here to look at our tram system ... for their own considerations. 👋🎅🎄 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, from Germany !

[@josephinthechickensoup123]

I bet singapore gonna be jealous

[@SyafikFikoIskandar]

yea no space

[@psgistheworstclubineurope]

Nah we can do without train tracks

[@josephinthechickensoup123]

@@psgistheworstclubineurope imagine LTA starts making retired trainsets a bus

[@psgistheworstclubineurope]

@@josephinthechickensoup123 I would leave the country

[@imransharif443]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha new style buses track

[@glitchFan2428]

It's actually quite an old concept, been around since the early 90s I believe

[@YaoboyProd2K15]

They even have 3-axle double decks in this busway?!

[@glitchFan2428]

Yes

[@christopherdaly9384]

Why not build it as a normal road but for buses🤔

[@glitchFan2428]

I believe it was a repurposed train line

[@christopherdaly9384]

@@glitchFan2428 Yeah,understood,as an ex bus driver I think it would have been cheaper to just buid a 'road' rather than all the added concrete guide mechanism and also that fitted to the buses!!🙃👍

[@westmidlandstravels7110]

Cause that would be boring :p

[@Derek_S]

I would guess it's much cheaper to construct than a normal road in theory as the tracks are precast reinforced concrete sections. that are simply laid over the prepared track bed just as in a normal steel rail system. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the soil at the edge of the Cambridgeshire fens, they did have some problems with subsidence making it difficult to keep the bed level. This made the project go over budget but I'm sure the same problem would have arisen with a road or conventional railway too.

[@Derek_S]

@@christopherdaly9384 I would imagine the guide mechanism fitted to the buses costs peanuts, It's just a pair of small wheels similar to the castors you see on hand pushed trucks in factories and warehouses attached by steel links to the steering track controls.