VIDEO: First speed tests on busway

Local councillors and representatives from main contractor Bam Nuttal experienced the journey on a stretch of the 12.4km busway, with the vehicle reaching speeds of up to 50mph.

The vehicle was a standard Arriva bus, with extra wheels attached in order to guide it along the busway, so it can drive both on the busway and on standard roads.

The final 700 concrete beams of the 4,700 needed will be laid at the end of this month, and bus services are expected to start in ‘late summer’, three months later than planned due to bad weather.

Councillor Dave Taylor, portfolio holder for transportation said: “Our busway will be the second-longest in the world, and the longest in an urban environment. Once open, it’s no exaggeration to say it will revolutionise bus travel in Luton, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, with a superb, smooth ride quality and dramatically reduced journey times by up to 50 per cent.”

The journey today took place from the White Line Retail Park in Dunstable and the council’s Kingsway depot, a distance of 5.6km.

Test runs along the entire busway are due to begin on June 3, and will be used to verify expected journey time calculations so operators Arriva, Centrebus and Grant Palmer can finalise their bus timetables.

There will be seven main stops in Houghton Regis at Portland Ride, in Dunstable at the White Lion Retail Park, and in Luton at Stanton Road for the hospital, Kenilworth Road, Luton station interchange, and near the airport parkway and the airport.

The scheme is currently £500,000 over budget, says Luton Borough Council, which is also struggling to find the £5 million it needs to contribute to the mostly government-funded project.Contractor BAM Nuttall also built the Cambridge guided busway, which opened in 2011, two and a half years late. The firm and Cambridge County Council are now caught up in a legal battle, itself costing millions, with each party suing the other over delays and cost overruns on the project.