The Cambridgeshire guided busway hit an important milestone last week. The Secretary of State for Transport came to Longstanton to open the plant where the concrete sections will be cast. He was very complimentary about how we have focused on this proje

The Cambridgeshire guided busway hit an important milestone last week.

The Secretary of State for Transport came to Longstanton to open the plant where the concrete sections will be cast. He was very complimentary about how we have focused on this project and got it under way. There was some muttering behind him about what a shame it was that his Government could not address the A14 upgrade with the same degree of urgency and commitment.

I should be interested to hear readers' views on whether we should insist on air-conditioned buses or not. One school of thought holds that air-conditioning adds significantly to the price of the buses, increases their fuel consumption by around three per cent, and is bad for the environment.

The counter-argument is that we need to persuade people to get out of their cars to use the guided bus. Are people going to be willing to climb out of an air-conditioned car into a non-air-conditioned bus? Given the way our climate appears to be changing, I incline towards the latter view. I think it only a matter of time before household air conditioning becomes the norm in this country.