Light Rail is an excellent long-term solution to deliver reliable, frequent, fast and sustainable transport for Cambridge and its surrounding region. Light rail is a technologically advanced and well-proven way to deliver a transformative ‘metro’ for Cambridge and to successfully drive modal shift. Residents, business, the Universities, schools, healthcare and visitors would all benefit, and important environmental and heritage values would be protected.
Pressures of growth
The pressures of economic and employment growth are expected to create an influx of more than 120,000 people into Cambridge City and the surrounding South Cambridgeshire District over a 20-year period from 2011. We are seeing this in the form of numerous developments such as Northstowe, Cambourne, Bourn Airfield, Wing, and Waterbeach to name just a few. The scale growth is equivalent to the size of Cambridge City again by 2031, now only 7 years away. The evidence strongly suggests that addressing this level of growth by building more busways will not be adequate to cope. We believe this is where the Greater Cambridge Partnership has ended up on the wrong track.
Cambridge Light Rail
Cambridge Connect, Railfuture and UK Tram – together with a range of other organisations and companies – have collaborated closely to design the Cambridge Light Rail (CLR) network. The Cambridge Light Rail proposals were first advanced in 2016 and have gained considerable support. In 2021 we made a major revision to our proposals, and the new proposal is presented here.
Cambridge Light Rail is designed to closely integrate with services provided on the heavy rail network, leveraging this to its maximum potential. We have designed our network to avoid unnecessary duplication, with heavy and light rail playing complementary roles. We see this as the most cost-effective approach to delivery of an attractive and integrated public transport service that would be transformative for Cambridge and its surrounding region.
The Cambridge Light Rail Network
The ‘Isaac Newton Line‘ and the ‘Darwin Line’ are the two main axes, referencing the innovative thinking that has long been a hallmark of Cambridge. In summary, the Cambridge Light Rail network would comprise:
- The Isaac Newton Line: ~47 km from Cambourne in the west to Haverhill in the southeast, via the Girton Interchange, University West Campus, underground through Cambridge City, to the Cambridge Central rail station and overground to Addenbrookes, Shelford, Sawston, Granta Park and Linton.
- The Isaac Newton Line would be delivered in three phases:
- Phase One (~13 km) – Eddington to Addenbrookes / Trumpington;
- Phase Two (~25 km) – Girton Interchange to Cambourne; Addenbrookes to Granta Park / Genome Campus; East Cambridge;
- Phase Three (~23 km) – Granta Park to Haverhill; Girton Interchange to Bar Hill / Northstowe.
- The Darwin Line extends from Cambridge North rail station to the West Campus via the Science Park, Cambridge Regional College, Histon Road , Darwin Green and Eddington (6.5 km). The Darwin line would be delivered at Phase Two – West Campus to Cambridge North.
- Phase One is the first priority because it would link key residential, commercial, educational, health and employment centres in Cambridge and the nearby area. It is the zone of highest demand, including tourist patronage between the rail station and Cambridge city centre. We propose Phase One delivery by 2030. An immediate start should be made on converting the southern busway to light rail.
- Phase Two would link the West Campus to Cambourne (Isaac Newton Line) and Addenbrookes to Granta Park and the Genome Campus to provide an integrated network across the region.
- The Darwin Line will in particular serve residents in the north of Cambridge, providing more equitable access to employment centres and essential commercial and health services across the community. We propose that Phase Two be commenced by 2028 and delivered by 2032 (around the same time as East-West Rail is expected to be operational).
- Phase Three would provide links to Haverhill (the southernmost section of the Isaac Newton Line), Bar Hill, Northstowe and Burwell. We have not put a time-frame on delivery of these lines because there are a range of influential factors, including when other developments take place, and on needs, demand, costs and the investment climate.
- Future Phases: in the long-term, links could be considered to other destinations such as St Neots, Alconbury, Huntingdon, Wisbech, and perhaps others. In the interim, these destinations can be served by connecting bus and train services until justification for mass transit links becomes more clear. Consideration should, however, be given to their potential with a view to safeguarding routes.
- We propose new rail stations on existing heavy rail lines. A new station is being opened at Cambridge South in 2025, and we propose additional stations on the line to Newmarket at Cambridge East, Fulbourn and Six Mile Bottom, and on the line to King’s Cross at Harston. Cambridge Light Rail would connect with a new heavy rail station at Cambourne as part of East-West Rail. We support reinstatement of the rail line to Wisbech, which has great potential for both light rail (including Tram-Train).
- We would note that our network model is adaptable to changes as developments come forward or change. For example, on the east side of Cambridge there would be integration with plans for developments at Marshall airfield site and at the site of the sewage works if/when that is moved. The link to Cambourne would integrate with and complement East-West Rail.
Our priorities for Cambridge Light Rail are delivery of Phases One and Two. With a total length of ~40 km, these two phases would link all of the major employment and residential areas of Cambridge and its surrounding villages, as demonstrated by our accessibility map. Delivery of these first two phases will itself be a significant undertaking and challenge. While even 40 km of segregated light rail is ambitious, we think it is far more realistic than the proposed ‘metro’ of ~150 km that was proposed in the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM) that was proposed.
A practical and realistic approach
There is a need for a practical approach to develop what is realistically feasible within a ten-year time-frame. Of course, if the demand and finance comes forward for links sooner than expected, then we would give these our full support. However, it seems clear that a modest scheme of ~40 km in length will be sufficient challenge for the authorities to deliver over 10 years. It may be less ambitious, but it nevertheless will be transformative and provide a solid platform for future extensions.
