Green park station/south Reading station

[Ian Royal]

Teleportation Pads are the key. Half a dozen pads that can fit 20 people at a time at each station. Instant ping to the Pad nearest where you want to go.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Always thought that specialised coach/bus routes might work well, turn railways to roads and only let buses coaches use them. Railways might be better for longer journeys, or not.

[Ian Royal]

Always thought that specialised coach/bus routes might work well, turn railways to roads and only let buses coaches use them. Railways might be better for longer journeys, or not.

Guided busways are a massive waste of money. Trust me, I live in Cambridge. Utter utter disaster.

Over budget by £40m (almost 33% of the original cost) and over two years late. And it's not actually that good.

[Red]

What's not good about it, and why did it cost so much Ian?

[Bandini]

Trust me, I live in Cambridge.

Bold statement.

[Ian Royal]

What's not good about it, and why did it cost so much Ian?

Because the County Council presumably had some people on the take. There was a proposal for reopening a railway line, which was rejected on cost grounds. Despite it being significantly cheaper than the initial price of the busway, which was to be put in along much of the route of the defunct railway line anyway.

Presumably the penalty clauses in the contract weren't sound enough. Possible murmurs to do with the Council changing specs on the contractors at some point. Big old legal battle between the contractors and the council.

Utter farce basically, and it doesn't really solve an awful lot of the traffic problems once your in the city, because that part isn't bus only.

[Red]

Sounds all too similar to the Edinburgh tram fiasco.

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Always thought that specialised coach/bus routes might work well, turn railways to roads and only let buses coaches use them. Railways might be better for longer journeys, or not.

Guided busways are a massive waste of money. Trust me, I live in Cambridge. Utter utter disaster.

Over budget by £40m (almost 33% of the original cost) and over two years late. And it's not actually that good.

Looking at that scheme it was hardly turning the old route into a road, i mean tarmac and be done, not pre fab concrete beams and shit, roads work well enough. NAd wtf does guided mean?? why cant a bloke just drive like a normal bus?

[Ian Royal]

It's guided because there are no turnings. It's built to make it hard for cars to use it. If you just build a road then it's hugely open to abuse.

[Platypuss]

Guided busways are a massive waste of money.

What's not good about it, and why did it cost so much Ian?

Because the County Council presumably had some people on the take. There was a proposal for reopening a railway line, which was rejected on cost grounds. Despite it being significantly cheaper than the initial price of the busway, which was to be put in along much of the route of the defunct railway line anyway.

Presumably the penalty clauses in the contract weren't sound enough. Possible murmurs to do with the Council changing specs on the contractors at some point. Big old legal battle between the contractors and the council.

Utter farce basically, and it doesn't really solve an awful lot of the traffic problems once your in the city, because that part isn't bus only.

So because that specific project has not gone well, all guided busways are a waste of money?

That all sounds like programming and contractual problems which can happen with any large scale infrastructure project. What about the buses themselves?

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

It's guided because there are no turnings. It's built to make it hard for cars to use it. If you just build a road then it's hugely open to abuse.

It would not be just a road though, it would be a bus route, plain and simple, I would not suggest loads of access points, Ideally it would end at a terminus at the town/city centre, I would concede that most towns it would be impractical due to denstity of built up areas.

Reading could have a bus road terminating at the Station,it would follow the route planned for a relief road in the past. Park and ride buses could have it as an option from Showcase, Woodley buses could cut out Kings Road, and Suttons Business Park and Thames Valley Park would be better linked to the Station, will it happen? very unlikely, but the land is there for it to be done if the will and money was there. If it fails then use it as a normal road.

[Chaney]

sorry fellas but i don`t come to this section very often, we were hearing loads about 2 years ago about the building of a new station in green park. then it just disappeared, so what happened?

[Friday's Legacy]

Mainly

- Recession
- Empty offices and buildings in Green Park

But also

- Reading FC relegation from the Premier League

[Nobby]

Pretty much scrapped for the foreseeable.

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2102 ... he_buffers

[Platypuss]

sorry fellas but i don`t come to this section very often, we were hearing loads about 2 years ago about the building of a new station in green park. then it just disappeared, so what happened?

If only the forum had a search facility....

[jumpers for goalposts]

If it has been scrapped then the decison seems remarkably short sighted. Whilst Green Park isn't exactly heaving with occupied buildings, it is growing slowly. I see that they are constructing another massive structure there as we speak (supermarket distribution depot?). Surely you are only going to get more and more commuters coming into the park, plus the international business park is next door as well. With football and rugby passengers at weekends I just can't understand how it wouldn't be viable. Perhaps it is to protect the buses and their stratospheric pricing, as well as the wallet rape that accompanies trying to park.

[reading_fan]

The company I work are on the list of tenderers for Network Rail, and this is a job we have a bit of visibility on. However, the job is still in the very early stages at the moment, we're not quite at Invitation to Tender stage yet, so I reckon that this is another 5 years off (final construction) yet. It does seem to be going ahead however. Can't really tell you a lot more about it though at the moment, as that's all I know.

[tink]

Pretty sure when i last got the train through reading, the signs at the station said "connecting Reading to Green Park".

It made it seem like part of the whole station renovation was actually supposed to incorporate a new line to Green Park/Madejski. Unless i was completely mistaken...

[SLAMMED]

sorry fellas but i don`t come to this section very often, we were hearing loads about 2 years ago about the building of a new station in green park. then it just disappeared, so what happened?

If only the forum had a search facility....

In his defence the search function doesn't work properly any more.

[Woodcote Royal]

Finally someone else is talking sense.

Quite agree and here's his post.

what's the benefit that justifies the cost of the building work?

The cost of building a station could be justified if it made several thousand houses saleable - because its presence makes those houses more desirable to potential purchasers.

But for companies already at Green Park, and for use for football/rugby for a couple of hours once a week, there's nothing to justify spending that money.