Cambridge Business Park, Cambridge Science Park, St. John's Innovation Centre and Park, and Cambridge Regional College all lie within a triangle formed by the A14 road (to the north), the railway from Cambridge to Ely (to the east) and the guided busway completing the south east chord. There is massive employment / education within this area but little or no residential accommodation, and teh result is a massive net inflow in the morning, and outflow in the evening. The A14 junction clogs badly, as does the A10 Milton Road. The guided busway brings in some people (from the countryside toward St Ives), but in practise the main traffic for the busway is from the St. Ives area to the centre of Cambridge, with alternate buses bypassing the science park, leaving gaps of up to 38 minutes there on the inbound service at the end of the working day. The railway line is curently near-useless for people travelling to and from this hive of employment and education, with the nearest stops being the main "Cambridge" station about 3 miles to the south, and Waterbeach which is about 3 miles to the north.
I do a lot of work in this triangle - away from Melksham, Cambridge is the place I spend the most time, and the majority of that work time is in this technology triangle. So I've been delighted to see plans afoot to open a "Cambridge North" station at an apex of the triangle. Without doing a full business case / reading that up, I can't quote you
BCRs▸ , anticipated passenger flows, etc - but this one feels like a "no brainer". The market's not only for traffic to the triangle, but also commuter traffic from the Chesterton, King's Hedges and perhaps Fen Ditton areas of the city, and as a guided busway and car interchanged onto trains from Long Stanton, Swavesey, St. Ives and the developing countryside. Readers may feel that with Cambridge Station "only" 3 miles away, that should be sufficient ... problem is that the bus takes up to 25 minutes across the city - or indeed I have taken 50 minutes on a bad day (that's an express bus off the busway, but running on City streets). I conjecture that you can tell that rosd-side transport to the current station is broken when you see the swarms of taxis there - and indeed I'll be using a taxi there later this week as I have no choice when I arrive / for where I'm going.
Cambridge is not in
GWR▸ /
SWT▸ /
XC▸ territory - so why am I writing about it here? Because it's a useful example of station development with which we can compare / benchmark, and we have a number of well-informed members who drop in here from time to time who can comment and help us learn better. Such learning will help inform other proposals - such as Wilton, Porton, a second Cranbrook Station, and so on; yes - we have a lot of experience especially in the Exeter area already, but that bit more can't harm.
From the
Ely NewsAn overhaul is in the pipeline at Cambridge's new railway station as Network Rail faces a race against time to get it built before the end of 2016.
Network Rail and Brookgate are bidding to redesign much of the entrance to the proposed Cambridge North station, near the Science Park.
Their fresh plans would see the 450-space car park moved next to the railway line, with this move set to make it easier to turn the car park into a multi-storey if residents' fears over a lack of parking materialise.
Vehicles going into the car park will now share the access road with Network Rail's maintenance compound, while the main access road into the station would be straightened.
So how is progress on this - which (on earlier plans) I should have been able to use just before Christmas, and again next week.
A source involved with the project told the News this week that the new station would be finished and open in December or in May 2017.
The station has already faced significant delays. Network Rail took the project over from Cambridgeshire County Council and re-applied for essentially the same planning permission, with the original target opening date set for December 2015.
New stations can only be opened every six months, to fit in with changes to the timetable.
In a further development, city MP▸ Daniel Zeichner has written to both Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire district councils to express concern over the fact the Section 106 agreement for the ^44 million new station has not been signed.
This package of developer contributions would demand certain improvements be paid to mitigate the impact of the new station.
And Mr Zeichner warns in his letter that a hold-up in signing the Section 106 agreement could delay construction of the station.
