The business case for the central section of EWR between Bedford and Cambridge is unlikely to be completed for several years so you’ll have to wait some time - if it even gets published at all since Government practice is somewhat inconsistent on this front.
On a point of order, you are both (as I understand it) referring to benefit-cost ratios (‘BCRs’). These form part of a business case (falling within the ‘economic case’), but are not the same thing and the current guidance for transport projects places less emphasis on BCRs for decision-making in any event.
Well, not quite.
Totally agree. AZ and a few others already publicly asked the govt not to scrap EWR. Cambridge is the place for these companies to do business, but housing is unaffordable which makes recruitment at all levels more difficult; good transport from more affordable areas fixes this.
EWR will carry short range commuter traffic, but it isn't just about that.
Exactly. Yes EWR will be able to do Cambourne to Cambridge (4tph planned I believe) and St Neots/Sandy too. But it also acts as the regional/long distance connector also. Plus freight potential. And many other journey pairs, of which Cambridge-Oxford is just one. And connects to the MML, WCML, GWML(ish) - it does more overall than a busway ever could.
Agree completely, also remeber that busways tend to not improve journey times massively over regular buses as the most congested areas tend not to get new busways. The argument for buses over trains 10 years ago was that trains could not reach the city centre while buses could. However the majority of skilled employment in Cambridge is or will be within a reasonable walking distance of a rail station with the construction of Cambridge South. Cambourne is projected to get a busway anyway and this is an important link, filling a hole in the UK rail network and busways can't be used by freight trains. The rail link allows for many loger distance combinations which would be impossible for a busway. However efficencies need to be made on the plans such as six tracking the Bedford approach. Furthermore any Cambridge transport solution needs rail links to Haverhill and Wisbech as they are largeish deprived towns which would be in a far better state if commuting to cambridge from them was a reasonable proposition.
www.railforums.co.uk
www.railforums.co.uk
To be pedantic, the site from which Astra Zeneca (AZ) relocated is actually called Alderley Park. [It is an affluent area, with other employment opportunities, and AZ have retained a manufacturing plant at Hurdsfield, Macclesfield, so the effect on the local economy has not been disastrous.]
Why do you read reducing London centricity as companies moving away from London?
Some AstraZeneca people moved from Alderley Park to Cambridge. Quite a lot didn't move, so there are a lot of new hires in Cambridge. There are now new companies at the Alderley Park site, so the lab space there is pretty full again.
Cambridge and Oxford are hubs for science and technology companies. Lincoln isn't one. Nottingham has a few drug discovery companies. I don't know about the technology sector around Nottingham.
Ely, Royston and Audley End already have 4tph to Cambridge. EWR will need 4tph into Cambridge too, and long trains.
Relocation is not the most significant part of this. Much of AZ's expansion in Cambridge, for example, is new stuff not relocation of existing work. And other new tech and life science businesses are starting up and growing all the time.
Absolutely. It is the new growth that matters and that's what EWR facilitates. Most of the traffic on EWR will be from houses that haven't been built yet to and between businesses that don't exist yet.
Haverhill will get at least a busway, though there is a bit of support for reinstating heavy rail, mainly because a busway can't use the old railway through Stapleford and Shelford. Traffic is already growing: villages on the Haverhill-Cambridge route are beginning to struggle with on street parking by commuters who are driving part way then getting the bus into Cambridge.
A new Wisbech route could be a testbed for innovation in cheap construction of new branchlines. My view is that a tram-train style solution is best, where a 153 like unit (with very low axle loadings), is coupled behind the XC service to March at which point it continues to Wisbech along a route where there simply been vegetation clearance and the relaying of a basic new track, along with an A47 bridge and basic strengthening of some of the bridges. The hard infarstructure should not cost more than £50M at most, which in rail terms is not that much and even then it should provide valuable experience for similar branch reopenings. I used to live near Haverhill and the A1307 is a joke at peak times to the point where it was often over an hour's drive to cambridge. The current plan seems to simply involve a slightly glorified park and ride linking to a busway which mostly parralells the rail route into Cambridge South.
The best way is via Kings Lynn itself using Firstbus Excel B or C which together run frequently, and also early and late in the day. They all stop at the railway station too. There's a route 60 to Downham Market from Wisbech via Outwell offered by local operator Go to Town and it stops by the station but it seems to do just two round trips a day that far out on M-F, college days only, early morning and early evening, so probably fairly useless for rail connections. Stagecoach East 46 Wisbech to March doesn't get going until 10:15 from Wisbech with only 5 or 6 journeys a day finishing early. At March, it goes nowhere near the railway station, with the nearest stop being well over a km away. I agree connecting with the Kings Lynn line would be better for most as that gives both Cambridge access and the fastest direct journeys to London.
AZ employ 4000 people at Cambridge of which 2000 were relocations from Alderley Edge.
Wrong. Ely and Audley End have 2 tph to London (and 2 tph to Stansted Airport). And Royston effectively has 2tph to London because the slow trains are very slow.
Yes, I know people who do it. The A141 from Guyhirn to Huntingdon is easily the best north south route across the Fens, especially the March-Chatteris section which is on the old railway line.
So that's 2000 people not relocated from Alderley Edge already, and, as AZ grows, there will be more.
Mainly people in Stapleford and Shelford who don't want a busway going round the east side of the villages.
Thank you. My exact point - nothing to do with relocation or detraction from London - look it up - but about supporting the notion and growth of non-London opportunities and employment/economic hubs. Links like this exacerbate and support that phenomenon.
