Mayor welcomes government funding and halved delivery time for Cambridge South train station after tireless campaign

The Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough James Palmer has welcomed the announcement by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rushi Sunak, today on funding for a new station at Cambridge South to be delivered by 2025, five years ahead of the original schedule.

Mayor James Palmer said:

“We are pleased that our case to disentangle Cambridge South station from East West Rail, which is not planned for at least another ten years, has been listened to and that the time it will take to deliver a train station for the increasingly important Biomedical campus has been halved as a result.  This is a victory for the tens of thousands of workers and visitors who travel to work and hospital appointments every single day who currently have no choice but to drive.”

“We will not rest in continuing to lobby government and Network Rail to deliver Cambridge South train station urgently, on time and on budget.”

Mayor James Palmer has previously made the case publicly that a train station at Cambridge South must be delivered separately to the East-West Rail project, which will link the city with Oxford and Milton Keynes.  This is because East-West Rail is not forecast to reach Cambridge until 2027 and is currently only in the planning stage, with no timetabling confirmed or a chosen route into Cambridge established.

A new station at Cambridge South is urgently needed due to current transport pressure into the area, especially at the growing Biomedical Campus where Addenbrooke’s Hospital is located.  There are currently an estimated 26,500 visits to the campus every day from patients, staff, academics, scientists and visitors, with future growth set to increase this number.

The area has been recognised in the UK’s Industrial Strategy as vital to the future of the national economy.

The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is home to world leading and pioneering science enterprises, teaching hospitals, and academic and research institutes.  There are already more than 17,250 people employed at the campus, with the potential for at least 27,000 jobs by 2030.

AstraZeneca, a global pharmaceutical company, are investing over £500 million to relocate their Headquarters there, that will be home for around 2,000 employees.

Cambridge is competing internationally to retain and attract business and investment so improving infrastructure is seen as essential to maintaining the area’s attractiveness as a place to locate.