Government pledges £7.2m to get Cambridge South East Transport busway back on track

A £7.2million boost to progress the Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) busway plans has been announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

Progress on the controversial scheme was ‘paused’ last September by the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) amid spiralling construction costs.

GCP leaders have argued the second phase of the £162m CSET scheme should receive government funding as part of the ‘Cambridge 2040’ plans unveiled by housing secretary Michael Gove, who wants to see 150,000-plus homes built in the area.

The government established a Cambridge Delivery Group to work on these proposals, chaired by Peter Freeman, the head of Homes England.

Today (Wednesday) in his Budget speech, Mr Hunt said the settlement for the future development corporation in Cambridge would be revealed at the next Spending Review.

He said: “In addition, £10.2 million is being invested to support the development of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Europe’s leading centre for medical research and health science. £7.2 million of this will unlock improvements to local transport connections for the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and the city, and £3 million is for Cambridge University NHS Trust to support plans for growth.”

The GCP has since confirmed that this funding will allow them to progress the CSET scheme to the next stage.

Cllr Elisa Meschini, chair of the GCP executive board, said: “We have been working hard with our partners to secure additional funding to deliver phase two of the Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) project which will ensure the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and local communities have the right public transport links they need. We are pleased the government agrees with us about the strategic importance of this connectivity scheme by providing £7.2 million to progress it to the next stage.

“The continued growth of Greater Cambridge is leading the resurgence of the UK economy and in order for us to sustain that growth it is vital that better infrastructure is in place to support new homes, jobs and the government’s ambitions for Cambridge to become Europe’s science capital.

“CSET2 is a public transport scheme which would provide faster and more reliable journeys between a new travel hub at the A11 to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and on to the city to ensure people can travel from growing communities to work, education and to meet friends and family.

“CSET2 will be designed to meet the needs of the future, from housing and job growth to utilising new modes of transportation. It will connect to the city’s future transport network, including Cambridge South rail station due to open in 2025.

“Today’s announcement means we can resume the scheme and take CSET phase two to the next stage of the process which I look forward to considering in the formal report at our executive board in June.”

The GCP was established to spend up to £500million of government money secured under a City Deal for infrastructure improvements in Greater Cambridge. But last autumn it said inflation meant construction costs for all its projects had increased by more than £200million, eroding the value of the deal.

As a result, it paused CSET and the Foxton Travel Hub - the two projects that ticked the fewest boxes on its list of priorities.

The CSET busway would run from the A11 via Sawston, Stapleford and Shelford to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, with a new active travel route alongside it for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, similar to the one along existing guided busways.

But campaigners, including local parish councils, continue to argue there is a far more cost effective and less destructive alternative to CSET.

The charity Cambridge Past, Present and Future has led the calls for an on-road bus scheme along the A1307 corridor instead, which it argues would offer “similar transport benefits” and cost about £100m less.

The GCP, however, says it has looked at on-road options and they would not deliver the same benefits.