In the Cambridge Indepent, Cambridge Connect make the case for a properly joined-up approach to the region's transport . It offers an incisive assessment of problems in various quarters, including the very obvious flaws in the C2C busway scheme, which would "maroon its bus passengers in Grange Road" with "no practical route onwards to the city centre, the central station or the Biomedical Campus". Not to mention the fact that "repainting the livery on the side of buses queuing up to add to the congestion and pollution of the city centre will merely add to the scandal".
Instead, then, Cambridge Connect propose a light rail network which would be "clean, fast, safe, efficient and spacious" – and put Cambridge on a par with its European Competitors. An inspired slice through the Gordian knot that is the Cambridge road system, if you will. Apart from all the enormous practical advantages, surely this is the kind of visionary thing that national government has in mind for its flagship city? Hello, Westminster? For more on the proposal, see the Cambridge Connect website. The Department of Transport have announced that there is to be a Public Inquiry into the GCP's application for a TWAO for the C2C Busway. Yet the County Council have yet to formally ratify the application. The original proposal document was approved by the Council in March 2023, but the eventual submission in November 2024 differed in key respects. The County Council is scheduled to vote on the ratification of the submission at their meeing on 11th February, and given the changes to both scheme and circumstances, CBAG has written to every County Councillor, urging them to reconsider before giving retrospective approval to the submission. You can read our letter below.
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