On 2017-04-28 08:16:11 +0000, Roland Perry said:

You said that the original intention was for the P&R to be used by
people working in Cambridge (but that was always misconceived in my
view because it simply abstracts passengers from existing bus routes

It doesn't necessarily. Cambridge (like MK) is in a very rural
setting, and many commuter journeys from outside the city are either
poorly or not at all served by bus.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

In message , at 09:56:32 on Fri, 28
Apr 2017, Neil Williams remarked:
You said that the original intention was for the P&R to be used by
people working in Cambridge (but that was always misconceived in my
view because it simply abstracts passengers from existing bus routes

It doesn't necessarily. Cambridge (like MK) is in a very rural
setting, and many commuter journeys from outside the city are either
poorly or not at all served by bus.

It's not that bad, and by definition smaller villages have fewer workers
in Cambridge anyway.
--
Roland Perry

On Thu, 27 Apr 2017 20:42:58 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
Sadly the powers that be in this country don't seem to believe in public
transport. If the tube didn't exist it certainly wouldn't get built today in
its current form. Maybe 1 or 2 lines plus an on the cheap tram system like
manchester or nottingham but that would be about it. How newcastle got the
funding a fully fledged underground metro in the city centre 80s is anyones
guess especially when Brum or Manchester were far more deserving. An attack
of
benevolence by the government at the time perhaps, or maybe Thatcher trying
to
keep the north east on side for a short time given the problems with the
miners.

Very little (10%) of the Newcastle Metro is underground. It's much more of
an S-Bahn than a U-Bahn.

Indeed, but its proper bored tunnel with specialised, non mainline stock so it
still counts as a metro IMO.

Even so, I still can't figure out why newcastle was so blessed when other
more deserving cities were not. God knows, Birmingham really needs a proper
underground system. If it was a city anywhere in northern or eastern europe
it would have public transport coming out of its ears.

--
Spud

In message , at 09:43:59 on Fri, 28 Apr
2017, d remarked:

Even so, I still can't figure out why newcastle was so blessed when other
more deserving cities were not. God knows, Birmingham really needs a proper
underground system. If it was a city anywhere in northern or eastern europe
it would have public transport coming out of its ears.

Famously "more canals than Venice" which isn't surprising since
Birmingham is about 100x the surface area of Venice.
--
Roland Perry

On 2017-04-28 09:43:59 +0000, d said:

Even so, I still can't figure out why newcastle was so blessed when other
more deserving cities were not. God knows, Birmingham really needs a proper
underground system. If it was a city anywhere in northern or eastern europe
it would have public transport coming out of its ears.

Yeah, Brum does seem to have been left out, largely I guess because of
the existence of the Cross ****ty and New St tunnel.

Liverpool of course got Merseyrail, which had it been built even 5
years later I think wouldn't have been a TOC. It's just that at the
time BR was in favour - fast forward a couple of years and it no longer
was.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On 2017-04-28 09:43:59 +0000, d said:

Even so, I still can't figure out why newcastle was so blessed when
other more deserving cities were not. God knows, Birmingham really needs
a proper underground system. If it was a city anywhere in northern or
eastern europe it would have public transport coming out of its ears.

Yeah, Brum does seem to have been left out, largely I guess because
of the existence of the Cross ****ty and New St tunnel.

Liverpool of course got Merseyrail, which had it been built even 5 years
later I think wouldn't have been a TOC. It's just that at the time BR
was in favour - fast forward a couple of years and it no longer was.

Birmingham's City fathers thought the answer to everything was more motor
cars then. They made a lot of cars in Brum then.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Can you give me an executive summary of the 260 answers your post has generated? Is it YES or NO?

On 28/04/2017 15:36, Offramp wrote:
Can you give me an executive summary of the 260 answers your post has generated? Is it YES or NO?

To be fair, 250 odd of them have been about public transport in the
Cambridge area including a level of name calling and a discussion on
metallurgy.

In message , at 16:25:37 on Fri, 28 Apr
2017, Someone Somewhere remarked:

Can you give me an executive summary of the 260 answers your post has generated? Is it YES or NO?

To be fair, 250 odd of them have been about public transport in the
Cambridge area including a level of name calling and a discussion on
metallurgy.

That arose from a discussion of the second of the OP's questions (which,
incidentally, doesn't have a Yes/No answer):

"Has anyone used Uber? How does it work? What is the service like?"
--
Roland Perry

On 28/04/2017 16:42, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 16:25:37 on Fri, 28 Apr
2017, Someone Somewhere remarked:

Can you give me an executive summary of the 260 answers your post has
generated? Is it YES or NO?

To be fair, 250 odd of them have been about public transport in the
Cambridge area including a level of name calling and a discussion on
metallurgy.

That arose from a discussion of the second of the OP's questions (which,
incidentally, doesn't have a Yes/No answer):

"Has anyone used Uber? How does it work? What is the service like?"

It might have done but veered (or more precisely "guided" in this case)
a long way off topic (almost to St Ives) after a while.

If the question was really about Uber, would anyone be interested in my
experiences of using it for commuting for a few weeks in Riyadh?
Presumably not, but in the spirit of things here (ignoring what might be
on topic) I'll tell people anyway - very cheap, drivers have no idea how
to follow a map but eventually get there, have a habit of cancelling on
you if you clearly have a non-Arab name. Best Uber experience I've
ever had - San Francisco. Worst Uber experience I've ever had - Woking
(I tried to order one 3 days before they started service there so was
obviously disappointed although they'd turned on the app service in the
area so it looked like I could find a car). Current rating - 4.69.

Going back to the Cambridge guided busway, trying to do a pub crawl
along its length is a dreadful idea - I tried it once - most of the
stops are nowhere near the villages they serve.