Call for an alternative approach to the Cambourne

The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) has been pushing forward with a scheme, now costed at £158m, to build a busway from Cambourne to Cambridge. Opposition has been broad and consistent at each consultation, including from the MP for South Cambridgeshire and South Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats. Many people have devoted huge amounts of time and effort to devise alternatives, which GCP has either ignored or dismissed. GCP has paid consultants £5.4m to produce a plan that is little different from what was implicitly the local authorities’ preferred option in 2015.

The GCP Executive Board meets on Thursday 6 December 2018 to decide whether to proceed with a consultation on the proposed route for the first phase of the busway: from the Madingley Mulch roundabout at the A428, via Coton and West Cambridge, to Grange Rd, joining on the north side of the University Rugby Club.

Let GCP know that you oppose this plan and what you would prefer to see instead using the form below.

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Please include your name and address at the end of the message, which you can personalise any way you like (but please be respectful and constructive):

I oppose the recommendation to the Greater Cambridge Partnership to progress the off-road Phase 1 route for the Cambourne–Cambridge busway. I support instead Smarter Cambridge Transport’s approach, which is briefly: 1) Before progressing any new busways, develop, with the Combined Authority, a detailed plan for the ‘metro’: route map, locations of underground stations and tunnel portals, guidance technology, business model, funding sources, etc. Proceeding without this risks public money being wasted on expensive specification changes mid-course. 2) Model and trial Inbound Flow Control. This might entail widening the first 500m of the A1303 from Madingley Mulch roundabout; adding traffic lights to concentrate traffic there in the morning peak (like on some motorway on-ramps); and including a bypass lane so buses can skip any queue. 3) Build a travel hub at Cambourne to connect local transport with express buses to Cambridge, the Biomedical Campus, St Neots and beyond. (This was an aspiration in the 2006 Local Transport Plan.) 4) Build a Park & Ride at the Girton Interchange, linked into the A1307 to intercept longer-distance traffic from the A14 and, in future, from the A428. 5) Work with Highways England to ‘fix’ the Girton Interchange in 2021, so traffic bound for destinations south of Cambridge can join the M11 directly from the A428. More detail may be found in Smarter Cambridge Transport’s response to the last consultation: https://www.smartertransport.uk/cambourne-to-cambridge/ Regards, *YOUR NAME* *YOUR ADDRESS* P.S. This email is copied to all Executive Board and councillor Assembly Members, and Mayor James Palmer.

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Reference documents

Mott MacDonald November 2018 ‘interim report’ recommending progressing an ‘off-road’ route for Phase 1
Arup report on how the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM) relates to this scheme
Conclusions from the Local Liaison Forum
Smarter Cambridge Transport’s proposal (submitted to the last consultation)

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Dorothy J. Thompson says:

23 November 2018 at 11:49

A lot of consultation has been undertaken. It is clear to us that Smarter Cambridge has the better solution to our problems. Do please take them seriously.

Call for an alternative approach to the Cambourne–Cambridge Busway