£200m funding and opening date confirmed for Cambridge South railway station
Funding for the new four-platform Cambridge South railway station on the Biomedical Campus has been confirmed by rail minister Huw Merriman today.
With around £200m of government funding earmarked for the build, the fully accessible station is due to be completed by 2025.
It will act as a key transport link between the campus – home to Addenbrooke’s, the Rosie and Royal Papworth hospitals, along with research institutes and businesses including AstraZeneca and Abcam – with international gateways such as Stansted Airport and the Eurostar, boosting the travel network right across the region.
Cambridge South is expected to welcome 1.8 million passengers a year.
Kristin-Anne Rutter, executive director at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, said: “We are delighted that the Cambridge Biomedical Campus is to get its own railway station in less than two years’ time. Better public transport links will be critical in fulfilling our vision of a more sustainable Campus.
“Currently, there are around five times as many visits to the site as there are car parking spaces. We have to find ways of making it easier for the thousands of staff, NHS patients and visitors arriving daily to get here without needing to use a car.
“This is a campus dedicated to improving human health, so anything that has the potential to cut air pollution and take pressure off of our local roads is also very welcome.”
She added: “Coupled with the recent approval of the East-West rail route directly linking Oxford with the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, we believe we can create a successful yet sustainable health and life sciences cluster that can both grow the economy and save lives.”
Sir Mene Pangalos, EVP biopharmaceuticals R&D at AstraZeneca, said: “We very much welcome the ‘groundbreaking’ for the Cambridge South train station, which will provide sustainable travel directly to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.”
Rail minister Huw Merriman said: “This brand new station will not only benefit local passengers but deliver a major boost to the entire city, improving connectivity to a world-leading academic hub while unlocking local business and growth opportunities across the region.
“This is just another step in our efforts to create a thriving, well-connected, passenger-focussed rail network to support communities for generations to come.”
Katie Frost, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia, said: “It’s an exciting time for the railway in Cambridgeshire with a green light to deliver a new station that will serve the vitally important and growing biomedical campus.
“Rail continues to be an environmentally sustainable form of transport and I know the minister’s announcement will be welcomed by the customers and communities we serve across Cambridgeshire and beyond.”
The station is also planned for form part of the proposed route of the controversial East West Rail line plans, which will connect Oxford and Cambridge.
East West Rail objections include the fact that there has not yet been confirmation that the new line will be electrified, the opportunities for rail freight have yet to be confirmed and there are concerns that the line will divide some communities alongside the proposed track. Campaign group Cambridge Approaches claims that the benefit to cost ratio for £5bn East West Rail project makes it a waste of taxpayers’ money. It will connect Oxford and Cambridge, with new stations at Tempsford in Bedfordshire and Cambourne planned. The line will then run to Cambridge South.
