Cambs Campaign for Better Transport – Newsletter 125, Oct 2017 Coordinator and Treasurer: Simon Norton, 6 Hertford St, Cambridge CB4 3AG tel. 01223 569623 (home) 764243 (office) email [email protected] (note that outward emails may come from a different address, but they are all equivalent and inward emails will get through at any of the relevant addresses) Chair and Buses representative: Alan Quick, 43 School Lane, Toft, Cambridge CB3 7RE tel. 01223 262188 email [email protected] Secretary and representative for issues not mentioned elsewhere: Susan Jourdain, 18 Millcroft Court, Mill Rd, Cambridge CB1 3PE tel. 01223 246791 Deputy coordinator and Light Rail representative: Martin Thorne, 53 High Barns, Ely CB7 4RR tel. 01353 615872 email [email protected] Cycling representative: Jim Chisholm, Cambridge Cycling Campaign, PO Box 204, Cambridge CB4 3FN email [email protected] website hhttp://www.camcycle.org.uki tel. 01223 690718 Railways representative: Ben Walsh, 14 Cunningham Close, Cambridge CB4 4DN tel. 07790 567143 email [email protected] European representative and website hhttp://www.cambsbettertransport.org.uki maintenance: Franck Arnaud, Metzer Strasse 27, 10405 Berlin, Germany email [email protected] Campaign for Better Transport HQ: 16 Waterside, 44-48 Wharf Road, London N1 7UX tel. 0207 566 6480 fax 0207 566 6493 website hhttp://www.bettertransport.org.uki. Contacts for nearby branches follow. Suffolk branch: B. Moore, 3 Station Rd, Claydon, Ipswich IP6 0HS tel. 01473 831168 email [email protected] Leics branch: T. Kirby, 25 Mount Avenue, Barwell, Leicester LE9 8AJ tel. 01455 842891 email [email protected] London branch: C. Barker, 46 Redston Rd, London N8 7HJ email [email protected] Notts branch: D. Thornhill, 3 Shadwell Grove, Radcliffe on Trent, Nottingham NG12 2ET tel. 0115 9334714 email [email protected] Cambs CPRE representative: I. Ivanovic, 3 Elm Drive, Offord Cluny, St Neots, Cambs PE19 5RN tel. 01480 811027 email [email protected] CAST.IRON: 198 Gilbert Road, Cambridge CB4 3PB email [email protected] website hhttp://www.castiron.org.uki Bus Users UK: Victoria Charity Centre, 11 Belgrave Road, London SW1V 1RB tel. 0300 111 0001 email [email protected] website hhttp://www.bususers.orgi Railfuture East Anglia: Paul Hollinghurst, 110 Catharine St, Cambridge CB1 3AR email [email protected] Bedford Area Bus Users Society (BABUS): website hhttp://babus.org.uki Disclaimer: contents of articles do not necessarily reflect Campaign for Better Trans- port policy at either national or branch level. Please give us your thoughts on any transport related topic, however small. This will help us develop our policies. We will try to pursue any complaint or suggestion or advise you how to pursue it yourself. Subscription rates: £5 per year standard, £4 per year concessionary (senior, student, disabled, unwaged, Campaign for Better Transport national supporter), £6 per year household/affiliate. Cheques to be made payable to “Cambs Campaign for Better Transport”. 1 and 2 year subscriptions are accepted. Members will receive renewal slips when (and only when) their subscriptions are due for renewal. 1 NEW MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS IN CAMBRIDGE While residents of Cambridge fret and fume at the inability of the powers that be to come up with any sort of coherent solution to the transport problems of our communities, certainly not the solution preferred by the person concerned, for some reason outsiders continue to see it as a desirable place to live and/or work. Three of the resulting developments have come or are coming to fruition now. Note that it has been drawn to our attention that the Open Street Map website is probably the best way of getting up to date details of the layout (e.g. roads and paths) in a developing site. The first is the new station at Cambridge North. The coordinator felt that any newsletter which didn’t deal with this would be inappropriate, but it was only a few days ago that a visit was made – hence the delay to this newsletter! We have always been sceptical about the viability of the station and feel that our fears have been borne out. When the station – which is at some distance from most places that people are likely to live or want to visit – was opened, Stagecoach diverted the Citi 2 to terminate at the station instead of the Science Park, introduced a thrice hourly guided bus between central Cambridge and Longstanton Park & Ride via the new station, and diverted some other peak time guided buses via the station. A few months later, the majority of the guided buses were removed – there were too few passengers actually connecting with trains to justify the diversion, and not many other reasons for people to visit the area. The Citi 2 continues to serve the station – no doubt because the non guided busway route that it uses goes past the Stagecoach depot and therefore provides a useful facility for staff – but it’s a slow journey. There is a fair amount of housing development close to the new station as the crow flies and poorly served with other public transport – the 117 serves the Fen Estate just 3 times a DAY – and not at all after lunchtime or at weekends. However anyone living there and wishing to reach the station – whether to catch a train or bus – has to walk all the way to Fen Road (from which there’s an access via Moss Bank), or across the Bramblefields Nature Reserve to Nuffield Road, about the same distance from the station in the other direction. Far easier to jump into the car and let the potential of the intended major interchange nearby go hang. Meanwhile there is no east side exit to the station which means that people wishing to go to/from the far end of Fen Road have a long walk to access the new station via Moss Bank. The Coordinator’s visit was in mid afternoon during school term. There was virtually no activity in the station area – just a rather brutalist cityscape only mitigated by the lack of traffic. Meanwhile, on the Fen Road side, there was a steady flow of traffic even though it’s a dead end. More on this in the next newsletter. Meanwhile, as far as trains are concerned, the general pattern of off peak services is that the “slow” services from Kings Cross and Liverpool St (but not the semifasts) are each extended to terminate at Cambridge North, those London-Cambridge nonstops that have hitherto terminated at Cambridge are extended to Ely with a stop at Cambridge North (but those that run through to Kings Lynn pass through the station nonstop), and the Cambridge-Norwich trains also stop there (but not the Stansted-Birminghams). Note that significant changes are expected to the Kings Cross services when the Thameslink upgrade scheme is completed next year. Then there’s the University sponsored new community at Eddington, near the Madingley Rd P&R. For a long time it was fenced off but it’s now open to the general public, who might well wish to patronise the supermarket, which is easily accessible by bus because Whippet’s U service has been diverted away from the bus area of the park & ride site (though it still serves a pair of stops nearby) to terminate there. Other bus shelters have been erected in the vicinity presumably in anticipation of future further extensions. 2 There also appear to be walking and cycling routes to Huntingdon Road (Girton Corner or Whitehouse Lane, the latter linking with the path to Histon Road), Madingley Rise, and Churchill College, though not all of these were open at the time of the Coordinator’s visit. The final development is at Great Kneighton, Trumpington, formerly known as Clay Farm. We were told that a much needed bus route providing a direct link between Cambridge and Trump- ington en route to the development would be starting in October. However this is being written on the 31st, and there’s no sign of any such service. (Incidentally, we were also told that following changes to other services in the Trumpington area in July the park & ride buses would be stop- ping at Maris Lane throughout the day, but this stop is not shown on Traveline; however visiting Stagecoach’s real time information pages suggests that it is in fact in use.) Branch News. Those who normally receive paper newsletters will be getting an AGM notice with them, but this may not appear till next week (except for those who do not receive an emailed newsletter). So here are the main details – members please consider this as a formal notification. The date will be Sat 25 Nov. As last year our venue is The Hut just off Argyle St. To get there, walk (or cycle) to the east side of the Mill Rd railway bridge them (if you’ve come fromthe city centre direction) turn first right into Argyle St then first right again where you see a short road leading to a fence beyond which is the railway. The Hut is on the right of this road. Stagecoach route Citi 2 serves stops on Mill Rd Broadway from the City Centre and Addenbrookes. Or make your way from the station to Devonshire Road, then either to Mill Rd then as above, or across the railway bridge, left to Rustat Rd, then through a couple of traffic barriers to Charles St and Argyle St, then left into the short road referred to above. The meeting will start at around 11.00 – the venue should be open from about 10.30. The agenda will consist of welcome and introductions, apologies, Coordinator’s and Treasurer’s reports (circulated at the meeting), other officers’ reports, review of subscription rates (no changes are expected), review of affiliations (ditto), election of committee and modal representatives, resolutions and AOB.