With the final public consultation on the draft local plan for Cambridge due to start in a week or so, is anyone looking at linking up the new settlements at Cambourne, Northstowe, and Waterbeach New Town?
Image: Towns and Trams, by the Campaign for Better Transport & Create Streets
Above – detail of the new settlements map, p267 of Annex A in the tables here
Above – the diagram on G-Maps with some of the visitor attractions featured.
Note that the northern route into Cambridge was discounted by ministers past and present, but that does not mean such a light rail route connecting the growing settlements of Cambourne, Northstowe, and Waterbeach Newtown. It also means that residents in Cottenham and Bar Hill would have access to national rail services to London, and to stations to Oxford. Bar Hill itself was designed as a new settlement in the 1960s.
I wrote about Bar Hill in this Lost Cambridge piece
Above – evolution of buses in Planning for Man and Motor (1964) p100
…which also looks at different types of public transport here. How does 1964 compare with today?
Above – a vision of trams and light rail from late in WW2, by the Light Rail Transport League, now the LRTA which publishes Tramways and Urban Transit Magazine
I have a soft spot for ‘past futures’ publications, and suggested improvements. One from 1948 suggests what amenities public transport hubs need – published by the Journal of the Institute of Transport in Feb-Mar 1948. (The Railway Museum has its own history of passenger luggage for those of you who really want to go into the detail!)
Above – on good design, JIoT (1948) p9
Which makes me wonder if the future Development Corporation can allocate the funds to do better than Network Rail’s ‘Minimum Viable Product’
A Greater Cambridge Orbital to link up visitor attractions
Rather than designing and building a series of A-to-B segregated routes – which is what the existing guided busway sections are, and what the proposed ‘roads with signs saying ‘buses only’ not-guided busways are due to be, orbital links are conspicuous by their absence in official transport documents. One of the loops I’ve wanted to see built for ages is one connecting Cambridge with Chatteris, Ramsey, and Huntingdon.
Above – one of the proposed light rail loops in this earlier blogpost
A Cambourne-to-Royston link for the Wysing Arts Centre and Wimpole Hall Home & Farm
Above – with north to the left and south to the right, with the inertia of the Roman Road clearly visible!
Turns out that I had looked at connecting Royston to Cambourne before!
This was looking at a south-western route looking at how a light rail loop might connect a series of visitor attractions.
Other orbital concepts
Josh Grantham, until recently at CamCycle, came up with a tramway orbital that does not require tunnels. I wrote about it here.
Above – Cambridge Orbital by Josh Grantham for Cambs Sustainable Travel Alliance (2025)
In that same blogpost I also spotted Stantec tying itself up in knots trying to get a bus route from the relocated Newmarket Road Park & Ride to Cambridge North Station.
Above – Stantec got tied up in knots trying to figure out a bus route to Cambridge North Station.
With the announcement on Cambridge East Station being confirmed by ministers, the need for standalone bus services to Cambridge North is diminished.
“What quantity of electric vehicles should we be modelling for? Only that’s a lot of rails!”
Put it this way I can’t see Mott Macdonald’s estimate of a 1-2-1 replacement of petrol and diesel cars happening because there are not nearly enough of the rare earths to go around. It would take a substantial technological leap in fuel production technology to enable a renewable manufacturable fuel source to function as petrol and diesel does. And for individual transport, using all that energy to move a very large vehicle around just for one person is strikingly inefficient despite the comfort.
Above – Mott MacDonald for Greater Cambridge Shared Planning (2026) slide 44
Cars (ICE – Internal Combustion Engine) vs Cars (EV – Electric Vehicles). Is this a realistic scenario?
It’s a huge challenge not just for engineering but also the culture change needed. One of the most recent petitions locally reflects the scale of that linked challenged. Which highlights the need to come up with solutions to those who already have limited mobility to ensure it’s not reduced even further.
Food for thought?
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:
- Follow me on BSky or on LinkedIn (where I pick up a lot of town planning content)
- Like my Facebook page
- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge.
The Cambridge Town Owl 