Why are Great Northern advertising Cambridge South Station as a London commuter station?

Posted byCambridge Town OwlPosted inUncategorized

Only that is not what it was designed for as the lack of a commuter car park demonstrates

And on a related point, Finlay Cox has had a look at the emissions from taxis in and around Cambridge here, mindful of the huge volumes of journeys that exiting passengers visiting the city generate.

Above – from FB and Birdsite here

The old Smarter Cambridge Transport scrutinised the design detail and found it wanting.

You can read their blogposts here

The next three months will be an acid test for the railway station – September 2026 in particular when a new generation of further education students make their way to Long Road Sixth Form College (which FWIW I would love to see bring back its old programme of lifelong learning evening courses as I did A-level History during my year out in 1998/99 – one of the few things that helped keep me sane that year!)

“The campus’s total travel demand is enormous, forecast to exceed 67,000 visits each weekday within ten years. That equates to over 35 million people-movements a year – more than through Stansted Airport.”

Above – Edward Leigh for Smarter Cambridge Transport, 30 Jan 2020

And that was years before talk of a new development corporation.

The grassroots group (of which I ran the FB page but didn’t really take part in the discussions) responded formally to the multiple consultations:

That timetable alone shows why it’s so difficult for ordinary members of the public to make sense of, let alone influence big decisions taken about their local area. And Edward Leigh, one of the driving forces behind Smarter Cambridge Transport is a transport professional. If the consultants and decision-makers responsible for the new station won’t take notice of people with specialist knowledge, why would they take any notice of the general public?

Which is why Smarter Cambridge Transport said the final station design was not fit for purpose

Above – Smarter Cambridge Transport, 15 July 2021

The numbers are astonishing

Here’s Edward Leigh again from July 2021

Network Rail’s forecast is for “c.1.8m passenger entries and exits per annum … once the station has been open for a small number of years.” That works out at 2,500 people per day. In comparison, the pre-COVID figure for Cambridge station is 16,500. A 2018 report forecast the total number of people working on or visiting the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) in 2031 at 45,600 per day. That didn’t take into account the CBC Vision 2050, which envisages “an additional workforce of between 14,000 and 20,000 – approximately double the staff presently working on campus.”

Above – Smarter Cambridge Transport, 15 July 2021

It gets worse:

So, by 2040, it is likely 60,000 people will be travelling onto the site each day to work or visit someone.[1] Yet Network Rail thinks only 4% of them will use Cambridge South station. That is neither likely nor acceptable.

“Is anyone assessing the cumulative impacts of all of the demands on transport infrastructure?”

I wrote about this a few weeks ago I get the sense that if the Combined Authority does not do that, then the new Greater Cambridge Development Corporation will do it instead. They didn’t bring in Rhiannon Hedingham as Head of Transport for nothing. Given her expertise on transport modelling, and given the high profile projects she worked on, it will be interesting to get her take on the multiple transport assessments on the large infrastructure and development projects in/around Cambridge over the past decade or two.

There were also issues about car parking – with Greater Anglia initially encouraging commuters to park in car parks used by patients and their visitors at Addenbrooke’s

Above – from journalist Mark Williamson on Birdsite, with further comments noting that the car park regularly fills to capacity – there is no room for commuter parking

Former councillor Sam Davies picked up on it – Greater Anglia taking far, far too long to respond.

Above – Sam Davies on Birdsite, scroll the thread back up to see the full exchanges

Above: “There is no car parking at this station” needs to be in much larger letters. Greater Anglia

Furthermore, for the first few weeks and also again in September, Greater Anglia should publicise the lack of parking online and at the railway stations – making it clear that there is no nearby offstreet parking. Because things on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus could get very messy. A shame the next open forum (30 June 2026 – see here) will be two days after the station opens.

It will be interesting to see if any of the issues come up at the Combined Authority’s Transport Committee meeting later on. See the meeting papers here. Only there are ***Eight*** public questions. (And none of them are from me!)

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: