Cambridgeshire guided busway dotted with art

The Trumpington Park and Ride art work will tell local stories

The Cambridgeshire guided busway is starting to bear the fruits of a £100,000 art project.

Art pieces along the 40km route are compulsory as part of the development of the transport system.

Examples include a video at the Trumpington Park and Ride site and rural images on bus shelters in Swavesey and Oakington.

Other features include time capsules at St Ives and Longstanton and seating walls in each parish along the route.

In pictures: Guided busway art

Any major developments require public art to be included as part of their construction and the Cambridgeshire busway commissioned four different pieces.

Cambridgeshire County Council said the art should create attractive, thought-provoking places for passengers to reflect on local features.

Brian Smith, executive director of environment sciences for the council, told BBC Cambridgeshire: "I think when people use the busway they will think this is really lovely. It isn't just an ordinary, plain bus stop, it makes you think.

The art at Swavesey station has been partly funded by the RSPB

"Obviously it is a lot of money at one level but of course, put in the context of the whole scheme, it is actually a very small sum of money."

'Collective memory'

The Trumpington piece, called The Gems, consists of two wooden railway sleepers holding up a glass cube in which a video featuring local people and their memories of areas along the route will be shown.

It was produced by artist Oliver Hein who, on his website, describes the work as offering "insights into other people's lives, the places they love and their hidden secrets".

It continues: "There is a great potential of knowledge, something like a collective memory that people who live in the same region share unknowingly.

"Neighbours often don't know much about each other - but they often visit the same places."

Time capsules

Stained glass designed by Catrin Jones, at busway stations in Swavesey and Oakington, aims to reflect the natural beauty of the area.

The Swavesey stop features bright green grassland, reminiscent of the nearby Fen Drayton lakes.

Meanwhile Jo Roberts is looking to celebrate the people and places in the parishes the buses will travel though by installing unique bricks into seating next to the track.

And sculptor Mark Dixon has used his skills to develop time capsules in St Ives, Longstanton and Trumpington, each marked by paving stones.