On 16 March 2023 we sent an open letter to all Councillors on the Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council and the Cambridge City Council. We also sent copies of the letter to local MPs and interested stakeholders. The purpose of the letter is to raise awareness among Councillors that there is a genuine alternative approach employing light rail to the current bus-only plans being advanced by the Greater Cambridge Partnership. We acknowledge up-front that the overall scheme will require more investment than is currently available through the City Deal. However, we believe that by delivery of improvements in managed phases, the scheme is both attractive and affordable. The letter sets out a proposal for Phase One, and shows how this could be financed and brought forward.
The rationale underpinning the letter is as follows:
- The twin challenges of exceptional growth and climate change are so pressing that current plans for expansion of bus services will not on their own be enough to realise the scale of change needed.
- The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) has no answers for how the massive increase in bus frequency is going to work in a practical way in the Cambridge City centre. We have calculated that to meet the degree of modal shift anticipated there would need to be upwards of 300 buses per hour coming into Cambridge centre at peak. Bus termini such as Drummer Street are already at capacity at peak and it is difficult to see how this could be accommodated. Moving termini out from the centre defeats the purpose as people would not be able to gain practical access to the city centre, which would not serve people’s needs.
- Light rail has the attractiveness and capacity to deliver the scale of transformation needed in public transport, but it needs to be delivered in a practical, phased and affordable manner. Our Phase One could be delivered for a budget of about £600m, which remains challenging although it should be noted that £350m potentially remains in the City Deal which could be re-purposed toward the light rail scheme. There are also funds promised for transport investment under the Devolution Deal reached for the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority which could be invested in the scheme.
- Additional finance could be raised through other mechanisms. In particular we propose a “Cambridge Accommodation Supplement” which could raise £10m per annum (or more, further work needs to be done to assess this more fully). This could be a fairer alternative to the Congestion Charge proposed by the GCP, and could be combined with parking charges and other mechanisms such as Tax Increment Financing (which successfully delivered the Northern Line extension).
- Phase One would seamlessly link all of the main campuses of the University of Cambridge, including the Colleges, with major business, education, research, residential and health delivery centres in Cambridge. We think this represents a very strong initial core from which to grow the network outwards, extending reach to the Science Park in the east, Cambourne in the west and Granta Park in the South in Phase Two. At Phase Three, links to East Cambridge and Haverhill would be brought forward.
- This is an integrated strategic plan that links with developments in the heavy rail network, including reinstatement of railways to Wisbech and Haverhill, twin-tracking of the line to Newmarket (with stops at Fulbourn etc) and would complement EW Rail.
