Mark Lucas provides a background to the opening of the new Cambridge South station.
On the 28th June, a magnificent new station was added to the national rail network – Cambridge South on the West Anglia Mainline, joining it’s nearby ’sister’ stations, Cambridge (Central) and Cambridge North. Conceived and built to serve the city’s prestigious, Bio-Medical Campus that comprises a growing cluster of world-famous companies and institutions, including AstraZeneca, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the Royal Papworth Hospital plus, Cambridge University specialist faculties, the new station also connects with the extensive Guided Busway system and dedicated cycle lanes. it is anticipated that the Campus will support 27,000 jobs by 2031 and will contribute £4.7 billion annually to the U.K. economy, in an area set to see the build out of 4,000 new homes on Cambridge’s southern fringe over the next five years.
Station construction began in 2023 on a Greenbelt site situated between the Campus and on the opposite side of the tracks, the tranquil, Hobson’s Park Nature Reserve. Interestingly, the site chosen for the station is just some 570m south of a very temporary station on the same line, called Trumpington, erected to serve visitors to the Royal Agricultural Society’s Show, in July 1922. Early proposals for a substantive new station to the south of Cambridge were supported by the UKIC and lobbied for by the West Anglia Taskforce alongside a range of influential local stakeholders.
The strikingly, modern new station, with its swooping, sculptural, green timber and sedum roof, is the result of a collaboration between many built-environment companies: Primarily by Arcadis, which were appointed by Network Rail to obtain town planning consents, provide multi-disciplinary design services, as well as project and commercial management and supporting the application for the necessary Transport & Works Act Order. Architectural practice; Fereday Pollard & Partners delivered a design concept which in their own words, strove to create – “a fantastic example of human centred, accessible design and demonstrates the positive impact that thoughtful transport infrastructure has on communities and places..” Thirdly, appointed by the client as the main contractor, to deliver the complex construction and civil engineering outcomes, J. Murphy & Sons Ltd. were awarded a £93.4 m contract. [The total cost of the project came in at £250 million to the Exchequer. In addition a contribution of £5m was made by AztraZeneca, the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority and the Greater Cambridge Partnership.]
Train operators including; Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Thameslink and CrossCountry, will all call at the Great British Rail branded and operated station, which is expected to welcome an estimated 1.8 million passengers a year! Up to 20 trains an hour are due to call here and customers will have a vast array of destinations to travel to-or-from; e.g. Cambridge, London Kings Cross, St Pancras International and London Liverpool Street termini, Stansted Airport, Stevenage, Harlow, Ely, Kings Lynn, Leicester, Peterborough and Birmingham New Street.
The official opening ceremony on the 29th June which representatives of the UKIC and WATF were due to attend, was cancelled as a mark of respect, following the fatality and many casualties arising from the EMR trains crash on the Midland Mainline earlier that month on the 19th. However, sometime later, our dogged, transport and infrastructure corespondent, Mark Lucas, made a special visit (by train of course) to the iconic new station, on a scorchingly hot day in July (the 9th.) to see the friendly staff, take photographs and inspect the fantastic facilities, which include six lifts and external capacity for a 1000 bikes!
