The latest busway proposal from the Greater Cambridge Partnership is being debated at Cambridgeshire County Council before councillors vote on submitting the application to the Secretary of State for Transport for planning permission
Image: An AI-edited collar pin of the old London United Tramways service
You can see the meeting papers here. If you want to table any public questions on this or any item on the agenda, please see the county council’s guidance here.
Above – The LRTA Campaign and its publications – a reminder if you want trams and light rail for Cambridge, mindful of the Government’s ambitions for the city and county.
The Greater Cambridge Partnership’s third busway plan
The GCP were responsible for the preparation of the scheme, but it is Cambridgeshire County Council that have to approve and submit the application to the Transport Secretary as they are the ones with the legal powers to do so. Hence this meeting is for the full council to make the necessary approvals without which the application cannot go through.
“At their Full Council meeting on Tuesday 13 October, councillors will discuss the Waterbeach to Cambridge busway and travel hub proposals and whether we should submit an application to the Department for Transport.”
Above – from the Greater Cambridge Partnership with links to the livestream and also the meeting papers
This is the third of three busway applications created by the Greater Cambridge Partnership – you can see their summaries here.
This is part of the GCP’s proposals to link up villages north of the A14 with Cambridge via public transport and active travel
- “Our new busway and new travel hub
- Proposals to expand capacity on the A10
- Walking and cycling routes, such as the Waterbeach Greenway and Mere Way
- A new railway station for Waterbeach
- Bus, walking and cycling improvements on Milton Road.”
Above – summaries from the GCP
You can read the Waterbeach busway documents here
…which looks like a new documents portal for Cambridgeshire County, and Peterborough City Councils.
For those of you interested in the background research…
See here and scroll to the foot of the table for the research papers dating from pre-2020
“What is the route of the proposed busway?”
Above – proposed route from EIA Consultation Published 03 June 2026 W2C 2024 consultation brochure
- Light blue – Waterbeach – Cambridge busway (effectively a road with road signs saying ‘no cars / unauthorised motor vehicles’ rather than the concrete rails of the old busway
- Purple – Mere Way (cycleway)
- Green – the Greenway (cycleway) from Waterbeach to Cambridge Science Park and what was the Hartree development
- Orange – indicative bus service route even though the Mayor of the Combined Authority has publicly opposed busways in principle and will be acquiring powers to decide on future bus routes under the bus franchising powers for mayors
“What happens to the buses when they hit Milton Road?”
They get stuck in traffic like the St Ives-2-Cambridge buses do
Above – detail of the route map at the Cambridge end.
The bus lane on Milton Road switches between the northbound direction and southbound direction part of the way through as the road is not wide enough to have bus lanes on either side with the motor traffic (See G-Maps here from the Golden Hind pub southwards)
“Why do we need the busway again?”
Because of the massive housing growth at Waterbeach New Town – (which you can see progress on in G-Maps here)
Backbench motions from Cambridgeshire County Councillors – Illegal electrical vehicles
Form p3 of the meeting papers here there are a series of questions that the county councillors will be debating. One of the items on illegal electrical vehicles (think modified pedal cycles that have super-powered electrical engines some of which can go up to 70mph). Part of the problem is that there’s no consistency in the law country-to-country. So videos of riders going at high speeds on such vehicles in one country may be completely legal – both the vehicle and the speeds, but completely illegal for both in other countries as is the case with the UK because Parliament has not legislated for it.
The motion brought in by Cllr David Levein (LibDems – Trumpington) highlights a backbench bill that tries to clarify some of this, but it needs a Government-backed bill to do this because most backbench bills never get to become law because ministers do not allocate time for the bills to be debated and voted on.
“A Private Members’ Bill entitled “The EAPC Bill” was put forward by, Julie Minns MP [Lab – Carlisle], in January 2026, with the aim of tightening enforcement of the existing regulations, in particular preventing sales of non-complicit vehicles by empowering Trading Standards and the Police to seize illegal vehicles at the point of sale, as well as if witnessed in use on public roads. The Bill received all-party support at its first reading but lapsed with the prorogation of Parliament for the summer recess.”
Above – CCC Full Council 13 Oct 2026 Meeting Papers p5
You can:
- See the introduction of the proposals by Julie Minns MP
- See the explainer on the Ride.To blog by James B here
Amongst the four resolutions in the motion, the final one states that the county council:
“Request that the Chief Executive write to all Members of Parliament representing Cambridgeshire Parliamentary constituencies, drawing attention to the concerns expressed in this motion, seeking their support for the principles embodied in the lapsed EAPC Bill and requesting them to jointly lobby the Minister for Aviation, Maritime and Decarbonisation to give priority to this matter and ideally include a Bill with similar objectives to the lapsed Bill in the Government’s legislation programme.”
Above – CCC Full Council 13 Oct 2026 Meeting Papers p6
Some of you may want to highlight this with your own MPs via https://www.writetothem.com/ asking them to write to Transport Ministers on your behalf, seeking an explanation.
My take is that the users of currently illegal e-scooters that are not part of the VoI Scheme in what must be the longest trial scheme on the planet,
“The trial began in October 2020. There are about 50 bikes and 300 scooters available around Cambridge.”
Above – Cambridge City Council on the CPCA-managed trial which I have moaned about for years – the pilot is ***now in its seventh year***
Above – “Ministers could save time and money by legalising and regulating e-scooters. So why won’t they?” from 25 November 2025
It remains to be seen what the Department for Transport will do on all of these.
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