Misguided busway?
Was converting a mothballed railway in Cambridgeshire into a guided busway a good idea, and is it too late for a rethink?
The case for a railway was clearly set out 30 years ago, in a document published by the Railway Development Society. In recent times, the group’s credibility and influence has increased significantly thanks to an influx of new blood, particularly former senior railway professionals. It is now called Railfuture.
Last September marked the 30th anniversary of Making Tracks to St Ives, which made a sensible case for electrifying the line to Cambridge for a figure of £ 3.66 million (around £ 9m in today’s money). To cover itself, the RDS called for a detailed feasibility study to test its theories.
The report spoke of a catchment area population for the railway of 68,000 (1985 data, which would be over 100,000 today), and double this total if nearby Huntingdon and its satellite villages were included.
These were pre-Network Rail days when new stations cost six figures to construct, not seven or eight. The RDS’s figures were £1.58m to be spent on masts and wires, £1.31m to relay double track around the sand workings between St Ives and Fen Drayton, £ 525,000 for six level crossings and signalling, and £ 200,000 for nine stations (four of them with old platforms still in place) plus car parks.
The basic case for rebuilding the railway was to cope with an above-average increase in road traffic, the growth of commuter travel to Cambridge, London and Stansted Airport, demand for the cheaper housing available in the area, and the job opportunities at Cambridge Science Park and the vast Addenbrooke’s Hospital complex.
As now, an electrified line would integrate well into the East Anglian network, and a 15-minute timetabled service in each direction at peak times would provide 2,400 seats an hour.
The RDS drew specific comparisons with the Braintree-Witham branch in Essex, which was once earmarked for complete closure. Electrification in 1977 was such a success that through trains to London were reinstated, as well as a Sunday service.