Local politicians are pressing ahead with plans to rip up the Luton-Dunstable rail line and replace it with an inferior, guided busway.

Rail campaigners believe that the East of England Development Agency (a Government quango) piled on the pressure to get them to approve the unpopular busway.

Luton Borough Council executive gave the go-ahead for the busway on Monday 7 December 2009.

The next day the executive committee of Central Bedfordshire Council, meeting at Chicksands which has virtually no public transport access, also approved the scheme.

A petition against the £78million busway – misleadingly named Translink – was presented from Dunstable residents.

The money-wasting decision by Central Bedfordshire came just days after it emerged that the council is to cut one in five jobs in order to reduce its budget by 20%.

Rail campaigners who attended the Chicksands meeting discovered that the busway item was not dealt with for nearly five hours because it was moved to the end of the agenda.

Only executive committee members were allowed to vote, although other councillors were “allowed to speak”. To their credit, three of them spoke out robustly against the busway.

The result of the vote was five in favour of the scheme, one against and four abstentions.

The committee secretary took no recorded votes, as these were not requested, but the one who voted against the scheme was Conservative Carole Hegley, Dunstable Downs.

If the four who abstained had voted against, the vote would have been tied. Would the Chairman, Tricia Turner, have used her casting vote in that circumstance?

As it was a cabinet (executive) decision, it does not now have to go to a full council meeting for approval.

The debacle of the Cambridge-St Ives busway was mentioned during the meeting, but glossed over.

One rail campaigner commented: “Not exactly a ringing, confident endorsement for a project that’s taken 15 years in the planning!  Three councillors opposing it, a petition, and even the executive vote as marginal as it could be. Cost-benefit is already poor, and higher oil prices would make this worse.

“So we now see a development quango (hardly impartial) rather than a Government regional office is now responsible for handing out taxpayers’ money for something the taxpayers don’t want built.

“This decision is not being made for the need and benefit of the public, and would prevent alternatives that would cut climate emissions.”

Another said: “Luton Council website says that stops will be 'within five minutes walk to more than 70,000 people', a claim that is demonstrably untrue and follows an earlier and equally false claim that this would be the world's second longest busway."

In neither Luton nor Dunstable does the busway have public support, for the simple reason that it would be no use to most people.

A front page poll in 'Luton on Sunday' a few years ago – "Translink - yes or no" astonished editors by returning 98% "No".

The proposed Luton-Dunstable busway is fatally flawed. As soon as buses leave the guideway, they will get stuck in traffic.

"Translink" would prevent a far more sustainable rail solution (train or tram) running from Luton via Dunstable to the West Coast main line, which because it would be entirely off-road, would be fast and reliable.

Bedford Commuters Association, the Association of Public Transport Users, the Association for Dunstable Area Passenger Trains, and Luton and South Bedfordshire Friends of the Earth groups objected to the busway but were effectively ignored at the public inquiry.

Even before the public inquiry, the “Laing Rail” paper which explained how the line could be reopened easily and cheaply was not passed on to local councillors.

In fact, Luton-Dunstable could be reopened as a rail line for less than £30million and could be delivered more quickly than the busway.

After selective re-sleepering, tamping and provision of low-height boarding points, the line could use diesel/hybrid vehicles as are employed by the Kassel tram train system in Germany.

Andrew Selous, the Tory MP for South West Bedfordshire, has said if his party wins the General Election next year it will cancel the busway because it is “a waste of money”.

Rail campaigners are hoping to meet Nigel Huddleston, the Tory candidate for Luton South, in the hope that he will support Andrew Selous.