Cambridge... a Progressive City?

So, 'Cambridge' has finally released plans for its second railway station.

(http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/First-plans-for-Chesterton-rail-station-unveiled-12062012.htm) Long overdue you might say, and a 'win-win' bit of PR for 'green' public transport.

Or is it?....

Here's the thing: Cambridge's continued - and now trend-bucking (is that a term?) - economic success lies firmly at the feet at having one of the world's best Universities... and an associated hi-tech industry that has grown up as a consequence of it.

If it weren't for that, it would simply be a relatively quiet market town, with narrow, busy roads, an under-supported professional football team and highly canalised river that occasionally floods its banks because it sits on the edge of the flattest land in the country... 

The Science Park, tucked away just south of the bypass in the the north of the city, was the very first in a now numerous collection of local business parks that are collectively known as 'The Silicon Fen'. It allowed University Research Centres and private businesses specialising in technology to come together in one place and provide mutual benefit for all. 

The pleasently landscaped, but now full, park supports many jobs and, until the opening of the nearby Busway, relied upon the A14 as its main point of access.     

And so... we come back to the question at the top of this blog entry.

For a city with the Number Six University in the World*, and a proven track record of creating the most innovative and successful IT companies on the cutting edge of technology in the UK, we finally see a City Council responding to basic infrastructural needs. 

There has been talk of a new railway station in the suburb of Chesterton for many years... and its only now, once the Science Park has 'settled in' and there are no new significant developments on either side of the neighbouring Milton Road, that the plans have been put down and cash found.

'Better late than never' I hear you say!

Perhaps... but what Cambridge needs RIGHT NOW is a new station in the SOUTH of the city!

In the area around Addenbrookes Hospital (itself a large hospital of International repute and recently both enlarged and provided with new access roads) even more building work is taking place.

In the next few years, over 3000 homes and associated businesses, schools, etc are going to be built on fields surrounding the hospital, and the nearby suburb of Trumpington. These developments (Great Kneighton  and Trumpington Meadows) will put an enormous amount of pressure on the roads leading into the City from the south.

This pressure will arguably be far greater than what the Science Park ever brought on its completion.

Once we have a new station in the south, serving a new community 'under construction', we can then worry about the one for Chesterton.

A new Development Plan for taking the Science Park and surrounding Chesterton Sidings/Cowley Road area into the next phase of its history can then be produced - with thought, care and less haste.

This can, and should, include a new railway station of course - but perhaps also some form of solution (finally!) for the entire Brownfield site of the Chesterton Sidings. Otherwise, they will remain, at least for a while yet, completely overgrown and dormant - until someone conjures up a solution for the legacy of the Lafarge Aggregates site and the nearby Sewage Works.

If new housing can be built, I would propose that there are NO new car park spaces - at either the station or the houses themselves. People can use the railway and busway to commute/travel about - and things like extra investment in hi-speed optical fibre broadband, or carbon-neutral housing materials and energy efficient heating and electricity can be employed in the housing itself, to entice people to live there instead. If people have no choice - they will still come... because this is Cambridge! And this will then be a Showpiece for Urban Living, not a piecemeal compromise that, literally, fills a gap.

I hate looking at cheap and cheerful development plans, even - or especially - if they are for public transport solutions.

This is 2012 not 1985. And Cambridge not Corby. And I mean no disrespect to Corby there.

Cheers.

*source:Times Higher Education