Greater Cambridge Local Plan Issues & Options 2020

Transport: Thank you for the opportunity to contribute comments to the Local Plan. Cambridge Connect was formed informally four years ago to promote sustainable and enduring approaches to public transport in Cambridge. In particular Cambridge Connect proposed a light rail metro network for the city and region with tunnels under the historic city core. Many of these concepts have now been adopted in policies and projects by the GCP, CPCA and others, and we welcome this progress. However, a proper assessment of light rail remains to be completed, and in our view this should be undertaken so that an evidence-based decisions can be taken about infrastructure investments that will form part of the Local Plan. We believe that light rail is the most sustainable and appropriate technology to deliver public transport improvements in the Cambridge region, and we support its inclusion in the Local Plan. We have prepared two substantial documents on the topic and these set out in detail our proposals and the justifications for the approach. The first report is called "Greenprint for a sustainable future" and this report sets out the light rail metro model that we have proposed. We would note that this model continues to evolve as decisions are taken (eg East-West Rail via Cambourne). The second report makes a direct comparison between the proposals for CAM as set out in the CPCA Strategic Outline Business Case for CAM and our own proposals for Cambridge Light Rail. We understand that the CAM proposals are also evolving since the SOBC, and so we expect there will be on-going discussions on these models. The two reports together make the case for investment in a transformative light rail metro system with tunnels in the Cambridge region. This investment would support the community in the face of the extremely high levels of growth anticipated in the region. We also consider that such investment is needed in order to transform patters of transport use in the region away from reliance on the private car and towards a first class public transport system with light rail at its core, but linked to other modes including heavy rail, buses, cars, cycles and pedestrian. Our proposal is for a backbone of high capacity and high quality public transport closely linked to the other modes. We submit our reports for consideration in the formulation of the Local Plan going forward. I would be most grateful if you could acknowledge receipt of our submission. Note: information on Cambridge Connect and collaborating organisations is contained in the reports.

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