Plans to tunnel beneath Cambridge and create a 12km route for autonomous electric ‘trackless metro’ public transport vehicles have taken a major step forward.
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This week the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority published a strategic outline business case for the £4Bn scheme which would see two underground stations built, one in the city centre and another at Cambridge railway station. Crossing the city from east to west on the metro could, it is claimed, take 12 minutes.
A wider network of routes is planned to serve inner city corridors and extend to several park and ride sites around the city, before reaching out towards Alconbury, Haverhill, Mildenhall and St Neots to cover a total distance of 142km.
The Combined Authority hopes that the scheme will create modal shift away from private cars, helping to reduce congestion, emissions and accidents. It is said that 100,000 jobs and 60,000 new homes could come as a result of the new metro, which may produce an economic benefit of between two and four times the scheme’s cost.
A technical report into funding and financing the metro suggests that those who benefit from the new infrastructure should contribute to its cost. Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor James Palmer has previously talked about land value capture, tax increment financing and the development of garden villages to help fund the scheme. It is also hoped that central Government will help contribute to the cost.
Next Wednesday a report to the Combined Authority’s Board will recommend approving £1 million in funding towards producing an outline business case for the scheme. Construction could start as early as 2021.
James Palmer said: “A transport infrastructure project of this scale is absolutely appropriate to the needs of the area. The Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro will serve an area of international renown, with a dynamic economy full of world class businesses, academic excellence and pioneering research and development. We must develop infrastructure in the same spirit of ambition.”
Cambridge City Council leader Lewis Herbert added: “Delivering the metro will be a massive boost for Greater Cambridge and will see a high quality future public transport network linking existing communities in all directions with new homes and new jobs – one that navigates through and under our much treasured but medieval city centre.”
(Photograph: Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority)
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