Heavy rail (for the non-cognoscenti, read ‘train’) connections are vital for business, science, technology, universities, culture and communities. They play an extremely important role linking Cambridge to London and the wider UK, and to airports for international connections.
As such, the heavy rail network is rightly a key influence on the design of the Cambridge Light Rail network, and Cambridge Central Station is placed at the heart of Cambridge Connect’s Isaac Newton Line. Cambridge North Station is connected by our “Darwin Line” extending from the University West Campus and Eddington across the north of the city to the Science Park and station. The Isaac Newton Line includes the third heavy rail station at Addenbrookes (‘Cambridge South’), which will provide better connections to London and elsewhere from the hospital and Biomedical Campus. The Isaac Newton Line would replace the current southern Guided Busway, which itself utilises the former Cambridge to Bedford rail alignment.
The heavy rail line extending east to Newmarket could serve residents in Cherry Hinton and Fulbourn where businesses such as ARM, Syngenta, Scientia and others are located. A new heavy rail station at Cambridge East would leverage the heavy rail line already in place to provide better public transport in this sector.
Cambridge Connect supports in principle plans for an East West Rail (EWR) link to Bedford, Milton Keynes and Oxford. The latest EWR route would proceed via Cambourne and thence south to Cambridge South Station. This proposed route is illustrated on our maps, and if delivered would have clear implications for our proposals. However, at this stage, owing to limited time and resources, we have not made an appraisal of this EWR route proposal. Detailed study of the route options and how they would interact with Cambridge Connect is required, which would be undertaken if our proposals proceed further.
Cambridge Connect supports the work being done by Railfuture East Anglia on heavy rail, and interested readers should get in touch with them for more information about heavy rail developments in the region.
