Area-by-area: Greater Cambridge bus routes proposed under public transport plans
Bus services every five minutes or less in Cambridge city centre with flat rate fares of £1 are being proposed in plans out for public consultation.
Click here for a PDF version of the above map.
The Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Making Connections – formerly City Access – consultation is asking for people’s views on proposals to radically enhance bus and active travel journeys.
This could mean cheaper bus services every few minutes in Cambridge, every ten minutes from larger towns and villages, and new hourly services for people living in rural areas.
The GCP is tasked with doubling the size of the bus network and tripling the number of passengers to help people to make fewer journeys by car.
Over the coming years, the city’s population is expected to grow by 28 per cent and if everyone travelled as they do now, the area could see 26,000 extra car journeys daily.
Poor air quality is responsible for 106 deaths each year in Greater Cambridge while emissions in Cambridgeshire are 25 per cent higher per person than the UK average with the main source of emissions from transport.
Traffic must reduce by 20 to 25 per cent on 2019 levels.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor Dr Nik Johnson said: “I believe that people-friendly and climate-friendly public transport linked to a strong walking and cycling network is the future. If we do more ‘legwork’, travel less by car and more by bus and train, we will transform our own health and that of our children. We will put more people in touch with better opportunity. And we will cut the county’s shockingly high level of carbon emissions, helping to halt, and perhaps even reverse, climate change.
“It’s very clear we have a growth challenge in the Greater Cambridge area, alongside the gigantic challenge of the climate emergency – so our growth, while necessary, must be sustainable. And part of achieving that means ending our dependency on the private car.
“Getting people on to bikes – or their feet – has huge benefits for physical and mental wellbeing. As an NHS children’s doctor, I’m very aware of the impact bad air quality and a sedentary lifestyle can have on our young people and how poor health can affect their chances in life.”
The improved services will operate between 5am and midnight, and between 7am and 7pm there would be a high frequency service across six corridors: Waterbeach, Ely and Cottenham, Fulbourn and Newmarket, Haverhill, Royston and Saffron Walden, Cambourne and St Neots, and Northstowe, St Ives and Bar Hill.
The high frequency service would include buses every 10 minutes from Cambourne and Newmarket to Cambridge, and every 15 minutes from Waterbeach with services increasing as the new town is developed.
Hourly rural services would include the Swaffhams, Fulbourn, Hauxton, Great Shelford, Guilden Morden, Duxford, Melbourn, Foxton and Sawston, as well as Longstanton, Bar Hill, Gamlingay.
All of the routes are proposed to have lower fares and smaller villages are proposed to have the opportunity to ‘plug into’ the networks, possibly through a demand responsive bus service or access to a travel hub.
The city bus network proposals will include express and stopping services along with more direct bus services to the Biomedical Campus, the Science Park, and West Cambridge.
The plans also set out more cross city services to train stations, regular local services from residential areas to shops and services and orbital routes around the city.
There is also the option for a flat rate of, for example, £1 for trips within the city, hopper tickets – offering one ticket for when people need to change bus – and cheaper fares for families travelling together.
Residents would on average be within seven minutes walk of a bus stop, as well as within five minutes walk of more local services.
The GCP – a partnership of Cambridge City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council and the University of Cambridge – predicts that these changes will cost £40million per annum, which would initially be funded by the body itself. It has been tasked with spending up to £500million of government City Deal money on infrastructure improvements, jobs, homes and apprenticeships.
But the ongoing costs of any public transport improvements would have to come from somewhere.
Share your thoughts by completing the GCP’s Making Connections consultation survey.
Area-by-area
Waterbeach, Ely and Cottenham corridor:
View the map by clicking here.
Services operate between 5am and midnight. 7am-7pm: High frequency services including a bus every 15 minutes from Waterbeach to Cambridge (to be increased as the new town is developed); a bus every 10 minutes from Cottenham to Cambridge, including an hourly express; and a bus every 15 minutes from Ely to Cambridge.
Hourly rural services would include Oakington busway to March via
Cottenham and Chatteris; ‘Ely zipper’ loop; and Chatteris to Ely.
Fulbourn and Newmarket corridor:
View the map by clicking here.
Services operation between 5am and midnight. 7am-7pm: High-frequency service including a bus every 10 minutes from Newmarket to Cambridge; buses every 10 minutes from the Park and Ride to the city centre and Cambridge Biomedical Campus; a bus every five minutes or less from Cherry Hinton to the city centre and Biomedical Campus, with a service every 30 minutes from Fulbourn. Hourly rural services would include Newmarket to Park & Ride loop; Newmarket to Haverhill; Carlton Green to Newmarket; and Soham to Mildenhall and Red Lodge.
Cambourne and St Neots corridor:
View the map by clicking here.
Services operating between 5am and midnight. 7am-7pm: High frequency services including a bus every 10 minutes from Cambourne to Cambridge; a bus every 15 minutes from St Neots to Cambridge; and a bus every 30 minutes between Huntingdon and Cambridge. A new service is proposed to run from Cambourne to Cambridge Biomedical Campus and Addenbrooke’s West, via West Cambridge, every 30 minutes.
Scotland Farm travel hub to have a bus every 15 minutes to the Biomedical Campus. Hourly rural services would include Biggleswade to Cambourne; Cambourne to Cambridge; Biggleswade to Cambridge.
Haverhill corridor:
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Services operating between 5am and midnight. 7am-7pm: High frequency service would include a bus every 15 minutes from Haverhill to Cambridge; a bus every seven to eight minutes from the A11 travel hub to Cambridge; buses every 15 minutes serving Granta Park and Babraham Research Campus.
Hourly rural services would include Newmarket to Haverhill via the Thurlows; and Carlton to the A11 travel hub via West Wickham.
Royston and Saffron Walden corridor:
View the map by clicking here.
Services operating between 5am and midnight. 7am-7pm: High frequency services including a bus every 10 minutes from Royston to Cambridge; a bus every 10 minutes from Saffron Walden to Cambridge. Hourly rural services would include Barley to Hauxton and Great Shelford; Guilden Morden to Royston; Duxford to Trumpington Park and Ride; Foxton and Melbourn to Sawston.
Northstowe, St Ives and Bar Hill corridor:
View the map by clicking here.
Services operating between 5am and midnight. 7am-7pm: High frequency services including a bus every five minutes or less from St Ives to Cambridge; a bus every 10 minutes from Huntingdon to Cambridge; a bus every 10 minutes from Bar Hill to Cambridge. Hourly rural services would include a loop service covering villages between Swavesey, Longstanton, Bar Hill and Papworth Everard; and connections from Somersham, Ramsey and Chatteris to St Ives.
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