A Cambridge Bus Orbital for the edge of the city

Posted byCambridge Town OwlPosted inUncategorized

Something worth suggesting to the Combined Authority at their Transport Committee Meeting in March 2026?

For those of you interested in bus campaigns more widely, see the Cambridge Area Bus Users here.

This idea emerged from the Cambridge community page on Reddit here

Above – click on the image above or in the original post for more detail

The Cambridge outer bus orbital features include…
  • A frequency-based rather than a timetable-based bus service. i.e. ‘Expect a bus every X minutes’ rather than ‘the buses will arrive/depart at these times’
  • Buses would start and terminate at either Addenbrooke’s or Trumpington to prevent bunching and to stabilise the services
  • A small number of ‘strategic stops’ that would become transport hubs in themselves.
  • Some bold moves for potential bus stops on the M11 which would need some serious infrastructure improvements if not separate bus lanes themselves (and thus the widening of the motorway?)
“Isn’t this like the Smarter Cambridge Transport proposal?”

Not quite.

Had the Greater Cambridge Partnership adopted those proposals in the previous decade we might already have that inner orbital as Edward Leigh proposed, the diagram below being what the inner bus network might have looked like by 2025.

Above – Smarter Cambridge Transport – Cambridge City Bus Hub proposals

The concept here is one where each of the oval icons is an interchange similar to London Underground, and also where the buses would circulate around that orbital rather than (with the exception of Drummer Street) terminating in the city centre.

Cambridgeshire County Council proposed a bus orbital in the mid-2010s

Which I blogged about here. Events (such as the establishment of the Combined Authority on the back of George Osborne’s envelope) then took over. And again with the current devolution proposals which will abolish the county council in its entirety by the end of this decade.

Above – Cambridge City Plan/Proposals (2014) from Cambridgeshire County Council here

“Shouldn’t we wait until Peter Freeman has put forward his proposals?”

Given that we have another round of bus strikes in Cambridgeshire in February, the planners and politicians can come up with whatever they like. It won’t make any difference if there are no bus drivers willing to drive the buses in absence of a decent wage.

Which is why ministers need to get a hold of local government finance systems and come up with something that enables local councils to respond. For example doing things like:

  • tax the excess wealth being generated in those places overheating,
  • impose levies/restrictions where some industries and asset uses (eg second homes under-used in some seaside resorts and beauty spots) prevent the establishment of much-needed public services because permanent residents cannot afford to live there, to help subsidise the costs.

This amongst other policies would enable ministers to divert central government funds towards those areas unable to raise the additional revenues from their local economies (eg Peterborough and Fenland in my part of the country) while ensuring places like Cambridge can take on more responsibilities for itself – and ensure those making their fortunes here pay their fair share of the essential public services without which their fortunes might not be as big as they currently are.

The Combined Authority has a board meeting this week

You can see the calendar of meetings here – I’ve not tabled any questions as most of the issues I’m interested in still need more work done before the committees discuss them most likely in March 2026 or beyond. But chances are Cambridgeshire Sustainable Travel and/or one of their member campaign groups may table something. So do follow them especially if local transport in our county is particularly relevant to you.

If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to: