Hunts: council bid to Whitehall includes A1123 cycleway and St Ives hi-tech bus stop

THE �150,000 final phase of the cycle track between Wyton and Hartford could be in place within a year if a �5million bid to central government is successful.

The application to the Department for Transport’s local sustainable transport fund also includes �50,000 for a high-tech guided bus stop for westbound services near the bus station in Station Road, St Ives.

The first phase of the �400,000 cycleway, between the bus lane in Old Houghton Road, Hartford, and Hartford Marina was installed with the bus lane two years ago. The second phase, from the marina to opposite the garden centre, including a central refuge in the busy A1123, similar to that already installed at the marina, is in Cambridgeshire County Council’s programme for building in the autumn.

If the bid is successful, the final phase, completing the track to Wyton village with the need to cross the main road, could follow almost immediately. It will include a third refuge in the main road, at the junction with Huntingdon Road, Wyton.

Construction of the two final phases will involve months of off-peak traffic controls between 9.30am and 3.30pm, similar to those that have been used in connection with housing developments in Houghton Road, St Ives, over recent months.

The bus stop in Station Road, near the guide hut, will include a raised platform for level access to Cambridge-bound guided buses, a high-tech ticket-issuing machine and real-time bus running information displays, similar to the equipment already installed on the two-years-late-and-counting guideway nearby.

Huntingdon-bound passengers will have to buy their tickets from bus drivers, as now.

The county council believes there may be no need for additional parking restrictions in Station Road, but much will depend on the extent of obstruction from parked or waiting vehicles to guided buses when services eventually start – possibly in the autumn.