Another catastrophic defeat looms for me in this one – one that dates back to April 2014 when me and Puffles (pictured below) went by bus from Cambridge to Haverhill (it wasn’t pleasant) to learn about the town’s campaign to re-open the long-closed railway line to Cambridge.
Failing that, see the CSET Public Inquiry Page here and browse through the core documents. Alternatively if you’d like to learn more about light rail more generally, see the LRTA here, and for heavy rail see Rail Future East Anglia Branch here.
Above – Puffles the Dragon Fairy in Haverhill back in April 2014, linking up the town’s rail-reopening campaign with the emerging work on what became the GCP
28 January 2015 – I table a public question asking the ‘City Deal Board’ to have conversations with Suffolk County Council about getting the Cambridge-Haverhill line re-opened
Have a listen:
Above – former Cambridge City Council leader Cllr Lewis Herbert (then one of my local councillors!) in the chair
What was striking about what became the Greater Cambridge Partnership Mark II was how the then Conservative leaders of Cambridgeshire County Council *and* South Cambridgeshire District Council showed little interest in the GCP even though their national party in government enthusiastically signed up to it. The two Conservative seats were taken by deputies even though they were meant for the leaders of each council. Not surprisingly, the Conservative leader slammed the GCP as he stood down from leading South Cambridgeshire District Council.
Above – BBC Cambridgeshire 11 May 2016
In 2024 The GCP doubled down on a busway solution despite an in-depth commissioned report from railway consultant Jonathan Roberts.
“What assessment has the GCP made of the Rail Future-commissioned report “A big role for Haverhill Rail” published in April 2024 (See https://www.railfuture.org.uk/East-Anglia-Haverhill) by Jonathan Roberts Consulting.
This was before the Combined Authority elections that followed in May 2025 – where the winning candidate Paul Bristow had in his manifesto that he would deliver a light rail for Cambridge, and that he was against the busway proposals. Hence his announcement for a future feasibility study the following month (sadly the CPCA have zapped the video footage!)
Prior to that meeting, I noted the very low Benefit Cost Ratios in this blogpost, as well as the very deliberate move by transport officers to instruct consultant to assess a rail link from Haverhill to Cambridge *only*, rather than as campaigners such as Connect Cambridge Light Rail, and Rail Future East, to incorporate it into a wider network.
“One of the big objections various campaigners had with proceeding with the bus rapid transit proposals were the very low benefit-cost-ratio which according to the early viability study was grim for all three proposals.”
Above – GCP Paper 03 March 2016
The option from Connect Cambridge as of 2024
Above – Phase 3
“Why didn’t they go ahead with further work on Haverhill?”
See this report from 2016.
Above – the consultants’ study on Rail Haverhill to Cambridge here from Jan 2016
I asked about this at the time.
“A Cambridge-Haverhill railway line could also ultimately form part of a more strategic rail link from Cambridge to Colchester, via Haverhill and Sudbury, including the existing Sudbury to Marks Tey branch. However, this strategic option is beyond the scope of this technical note and the current study.”
Above – quoting the report in my original Public Question from my old blog from nine years ago.
I tabled a public question back in 2017 asking about linking Haverhill to Cambridge by rail in this public question to the old City Deal Assembly, with this response from the then City Council Transport Director Graham Hughes.
What did the consultation responses show?
When you look at the core documents in the current public inquiry for CSET, the number of consultations is soul-destroyingly long.
Above – Core Documents in the CD1 folder from the CSET Public Inquiry Page Sept 2026
Feel free to go through the core documents and make of it what you will.
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