Well put - it will be many years (if ever) before this line is ever built, judging by the procrastination over HS2 for which full approval has already been obtained as far as Crewe and construction works initiated. And all just to serve a minor university city in Fenland.
Cambridge is one of the top 10 university cities in the world.
You aren't, perchance, connected to the Other Place are you?
Ooops....Cambridge is not in Fenland, which is a district council in the North of Cambridgeshire which includes the towns of Wisbech and March.
Apologies - I was using Fenland in a generic sense, and didn't realise there is a district council with this specific name elsewhere in Cambridgeshire.
Cambridge University is a major world-class university, but it is sited in a minor city, as are a number of other historic major universities in the UK and elsewhere, such as Uppsala or Yale (in the city of New Haven). The land owned by Cambridge University and its colleges is indeed sizeable, but this is irrelevant to the thread. The primary driver for passenger rail service development is population size per se and population density, and Cambridge is nowhere near the top of the league in this regard.
Cambridge is a smaller city, but it's high-value economy means travel to it is more valuable per-capita than if it had the average income/cap. That economic slice is also a demographic and socio-economic segment that lends itself very strongly to commuting in from surrounding towns (especially given Cambridge's restrictions on new housing development in the historic centre), and then add to that the number of people looking to visit Cambridge for tourism, reunions, visiting university facilities/events, or visiting employers such as AstraZeneca.
Cambridge is a minor City !? That's the best laugh I have heard this year !
I've always wondered if Stephen Fry's line was totally unscripted. Atkinson looks so taken aback when he delivers it.
It was! And of course Atkinson was at Oxford and Fry at Cambridge.....
I knew Fry was cambridge, but I'd got it into my head Atkinson was as well, but that explains the reaction perfectly, thanks! (Mods, please forgive the tangent)
The only place that is to be served by the E-W line that is currently a commuter settlement for Cambridge is the new development at Cambourne; other villages en route west of Cambridge will not be served. There is nothing of significance currently at Tempsford and St.Neots will not have a station on the line. Bedford is over 30 miles away, a large town in its own right and too far for commuting for other than a small number of highly paid employees. Cambridge station itself is poorly sited for the city centre, although the new station at Cambridge South will serve Addenbrooke's Hospital and the associated biomedical campus. Cambridge North station will not be served directly, and will only be accessible via a change of train at the main station.
It's not about now. Its about 10, 20, 30 years time. Tempsford and Cambourne will mushroom with a rail connection.
Both go north of the existing A428 because of Croxton Park and Eltisley village.
But once EWR goes ahead, the houses at Tempsford will be there. Given variations in lead times, probably before EWR is finished.
The EWR report also mentions commuting to Cambridge from Stewartby and Ridgmont, with journey times to/from Cambridge lass than 1 hour.
Irrelevant. The old City Centre is not where the jobs are. The high productivity jobs that were there have mostly migrated to be near the railway.
Exactly. Nearly 20000 jobs on site already, including 3 hospitals. Expected to grow to more than 30000 jobs and 5 hospitals.
Cost-benefit can be useful for comparing different options under the same assumptions, and was used for that purpose in the previous consultation. But it is about as much use as a chocolate teapot for assessing the economic impact of a stategic project over a timescale of 50 years. Bear in mind how good the Bank of England and the OBR have been at economic forecasts recently to see why this is so.
EWR Ltd (like HS2 Ltd) is a promoter of a new railway line, and will of course be promoting its economic rationale for building it. It is not the organisation that will be making the decision about whether or not it is built. Part of the justification for HS2 is the potential regeneration it could bring to more economically challenged areas of England. That figleaf does not apply to EWR, particularly with respect to the Cambridge area which is becoming overheated economically and where house prices are already exorbitant (and hotel prices too). I question whether it would be appropriate for taxpayers' money to be poured into one of the most prosperous parts of the UK, but that will be for a future government to decide after the next general election once the application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) is eventually submitted.
Stimulating growth in an area close to topping out is an excellent way to increase government revenues to facilitate intervention in less prosperous areas. Especially when the growth that is stimulated is highly international in nature (as universities generally are, but especially Oxford and Cambridge), and so is a net gain for the UK rather than moving money from one part of the UK to the other.
I worked for a major employer in Cambridge 10 years ago and I knew of colleagues who commuted in from Ely, Bedford, Bury St Edmunds, Thetford, King's Lynn and Norwich !! And back then they were on circa 25k a year (so not low paid, but not highly paid either). 25k pretty much being average wages at the time. So I think, as in the case of your previous 'Fenland' comment, you have a lack of understanding about Cambridge, it's surrounding area, the labour and housing markets.
50 years ago, certainly. 30 years ago, possibly. Now, you clearly don't realise how far people routinely commute to middle income jobs in this area and the Midlands in general. (maybe elsewhere too?)
Some may do, but in my experience it is not particularly common in the North Midlands or Cheshire for commutes to be more than 25 miles/1 hour each way. After a few years of enduring a longer commute, many people tend to relocate, find a job nearer their residence or leave work entirely. It is also not green to be building a new railway line to promote/encourage very long-distance commuting.
But East - West Rail isn't planned for the North Midlands or Cheshire !! It is/will be in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire a.k.a. the home counties !!
Exactly gone are the days when everyone worked locally and in the town they live in or the nearest, I'm guessing the journey time from Bedford to Cambridge will be around 30 minutes?
Exactly.
On a good day about 35 mins, on a bad day about 1 hour or more by car. It all depends on time of day as between St Neots and Caxton Gibbet it is a 60mph road but at times your lucky to do 30mph (hence why the road is being upgraded). And EWR should be competitive also on a quicker journey time.
The amount of traffic south of Bedford dwarfs the traffic north of Bedford. I still don't see why 15-20 workings currently north of Bedford create so much congestion when there are 200 workings south of Bedford with the same amount of tracks. When Thameslink started up we didn't need to build 4 more tracks for them, we just used the pre existing ones and ran alongside the inter city services and that goes on for 50 miles, not 1.5.
There is East-West connectivity further north albeit not fast. There is literally nothing east-west north of the North London line until one reaches Birmingham-Nuneaton-Leicester-Melton Mowbray-Peterborough-Ely-Norwich.
I never said it was ! But the counties I listed, added together, is another matter.
