Ambitious aims for Cambridge South railway station at Addenbrooke's to be opened before 2022
Lord Adonis' new deal for Oxford-Cambridge corridor endorses urgent need for station on Cambridge Biomedical Campus
The vision of a new railway station to serve the fast-growing Cambridge Biomedical Campus has been endorsed by the National Infrastructure Commission’s report on the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor.
Lord Adonis, chairman of the NIC, calls in the report for the Government to invest heavily in the Varsity ‘brain-belt’, with new road and rail links between Cambridge and Oxford.
The NIC says one million new homes and jobs could be created.
It would mean the region, which contributes about £90billion to the country, would generate more than £250billion each year. And Lord Adonis says this development can all be done without impacting the environment or encroaching on Green Belt land.
The Cambridge Biomedical Campus provides thousands of jobs in Cambridge, and with new buildings such as Papworth Hospital set to bring thousands more workers a railway station to the south of the city is now being pushed as key infrastructure.
The NIC report sets 2022 as the target for opening such a station. Cambridge City Council leader Cllr Lewis Herbert would like to see it open sooner.
He said: “This major investment in rail is both welcome and overdue, and we ask the Chancellor to support all the key NIC recommendations in his Budget next Wednesday, to deliver the vital new Cambridge South station by 2022 latest and the full East West rail route from Cambridge to Milton Keynes and Oxford by 2030, as a major boost to making our growth sustainable and shifting transport from road to rail.
“On Cambridge South, we will be working with the Mayor, the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Government to try to beat the 2022 deadline, provided Government confirms funding next week to match planned private investment and local funding contributions. Timing depends on the scale of four track and best design to maximise stopping trains and we want to get it right, and earlier than 2022 if we possibly can.”
Chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership, Cllr Francis Burkitt, said: “We are delighted that the NIC has so strongly endorsed our current approach and recognises the vision of local authorities to work together to achieve a step-change in travel for the future.
“It’s also pleasing to see that all the lobbying by the GCP, MPs and other local partners, for a possible new train station at Cambridge South and an all-movements interchange at the M11/Girton junction has been heard, and I’m optimistic the Government will listen to the NIC case for this.”
