Draft Greater Cambridge Local Plan for consultation

Comment

Representation ID: 208028

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

Railfuture East Anglia welcome the plan’s ambition to tackle climate change, health and create high‑quality places with a strong focus on sustainability, wellbeing, good design, walking, cycling and public transport. Railfuture is a partner within the Cambridgeshire Sustainable Travel Alliance of CamCycle, Cambridge Bus Users and Cambridge Living Streets. We fully support their responses to this consultation.

Comment

Representation ID: 208029

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

Good public transport must be placed firmly at the heart of future development. Public transport, including active travel, should shape development outcomes rather than respond to them. Trains, buses, and active travel are the genuinely sustainable modes of transport. We cannot accept the premise within the draft plan that electric vehicles form part of a sustainable transport solution. While they have a role to play in decarbonisation and improving air quality, electric vehicles contribute to many of the problems the plan seeks to address, including congestion, land take, and particulate pollution from tyres and brake dust and low costs of EV charging will encourage modal shift away from buses and trains - opposite of the stated aims of the Local Plan.

Comment

Representation ID: 208030

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

While the focus of development close to the city’s three railway stations is supported, the regional railway network outside the city, including its seven local stations, has been largely overlooked in the draft plan, except around Cambourne, which is a station yet to be built. The railway already shapes major travel flows in the area. Stations at Whittlesford Parkway, Shelford, Ashwell & Morden, Meldreth, Shepreth, Foxton, and Waterbeach are vital assets and the passenger flows from these stations are substantial. The draft Local Plan must explicitly recognise the importance of these local and city stations and the potential for existing rail lines to operate as a formal metro system serving key employment and development areas.

Comment

Representation ID: 208031

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP) proposals for rail-based travel hubs must be fully implemented. Foxton Station: The proposed travel hub should intercept car journeys along the A10 into Cambridge, particularly for trips to the Biomedical Campus, Cambridge Central Station area, Cambridge North, the Science Park, and Waterbeach. Whittlesford Parkway: A similar travel hub should be delivered here to intercept vehicle movements from the south-east of Greater Cambridge and to serve the nearby Genome Campus, as well as the M11 motorway.

Comment

Representation ID: 208032

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

Local stations at Ashwell & Morden, Meldreth, Shepreth, Foxton, Whittlesford Parkway, Shelford, and Waterbeach village are already well used, but access must be improved. The plan should commit future authorities to:
• Providing step-free access at all stations, including lifts and footbridges between platforms.
• Work with Network Rail and Greater British Railway to safeguard land for platform extensions, new footbridges, lifts etc as appropriate.
• Delivering safe, direct cycling and walking routes linking stations to their villages and surrounding villages building on the Greenway network.
It is particularly concerning that there is currently no safe walking and cycling route between Sawston, Duxford, and Whittlesford Parkway station.

Comment

Representation ID: 208033

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

No housing has been allocated near the seven rural stations; the plan should support higher‑density housing around these stations and ensure a minimum of two trains per hour throughout the day.

Comment

Representation ID: 208034

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

We welcome the inclusion of proposals to deliver an eastern entrance at Cambridge Central Station to unlock higher-density development to the east and south-east. We support further densification of research and employment development around Cambridge North, the Science Park, and the Business Park.

Comment

Representation ID: 208035

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

Waterbeach village station must be retained to serve Waterbeach, Landbeach, and Horningsea. The new town at Waterbeach should include high-density development focused around its new station.

Comment

Representation ID: 208036

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

At Cambourne, we support significant housing growth around the new station, but this development must be dense enough to ensure the railway can serve it effectively. The Cambridge to Cambourne busway should be extended to directly serve Cambourne station enabling high quality bus services between Cambourne railway station and existing parts of Cambourne and the proposed Bourn Airfield housing allocation.

Comment

Representation ID: 208037

Received: 27/01/2026

Respondent: Railfuture East Anglia

In East Cambridge, the plan should commit to working towards a new station on the Newmarket line near Yarrow Road and Gazelle Way, ideally with the removal of the level crossing and its replacement by a bridge. In connection with these developments the future authority should demonstrate its backing of the restoration of double tracking of the Newmarket railway with Newmarket becoming the turnback station for EWR. Land along Gazelle Way should also be safeguarded for a future light rail line linking east Cambridge to the airport site and Cambridge North continuing via Orchard Park to Darwin Green, Eddington, and Cambridge West, potentially using the part of the guided busway corridor.