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As the new Cambridge South station comes closer with today’s launch of the second round of public consultation, Mayor James Palmer has welcomed Network Rail’s stepped-up delivery date while issuing strong warnings on service provision.
The much-needed Cambridge South station has taken another step forward as Network Rail says it will launch the second round of public consultation in October.
Network Rail has identified the preferred location of the proposed new railway station for Cambridge South.
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:“The announcement in today’s budget for a train station for Cambridge South by 2025, is very welcome and long overdue.“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.
Network Rail has announced it is launching a public consultation in early 2020 on proposals for a new railway station for Cambridge South.
Mayor James Palmer has said growing pressure on existing transport infrastructure around Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) makes a clear and urgent case for a study exploring the feasibility of an earlier interim railway station at Cambridge South. The full station at Cambridge South, which will serve the CBC, is not expected to be built until around 2027, with the Combined Authority one of four funding bodies for the current phase of works led by Network Rail. The Combined Authority Board in March will be asked to decide whether to approve a study into the feasibility of an interim station delivered years ahead of the full station, including how much it would cost.
The confirmation of major Government investment into a new railway station for the south of Cambridge, as part of a wider east-west rail connectivity project, has been hailed by local partners as a ‘significant boost for the region’.
