Joint Assembly to discuss plans to restart Cambridge South East Transport busway

A new busway as well as a cycling and walking link to help people to get to work and school or access healthcare could soon be back on track.

The Greater Cambridge Partnership has today (Friday 30 August) set out steps to formally progress phase two of the Cambridge South East Transport (CSET) project in a report to its Joint Assembly which meets on 12 September.

CSET is a dedicated public transport route to provide fast and frequent bus journeys from a new travel hub at the A11 to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus which would be delivered alongside a new walking and cycling route to give people more travel options.

It would also take people from Cambridge out to Granta Park and Babraham Research Campus, providing people with direct links to life science centres for employment and research.

The scheme was paused by the GCP’s Executive Board last September subject to identifying new funding streams as costs increased by 20-30% across the GCP’s programme due to rising inflation.

The Chancellor announced in the Spring Budget that £7.2m would be allocated towards the CSETS scheme to support the proposed expansion of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and tens of thousands of new homes earmarked for the region.

If approved by the GCP’s Executive Board next month, the GCP will ask Cambridgeshire County Council – as the highways authority – to submit a Transport & Works Act Order (TWAO) application to the Government for permission to progress the scheme.

The GCP will also use the new Government funding to bring forward a segregated walking and cycling link alongside new bus stops and other safety improvements on Francis Crick Avenue to support Cambridge South Station, which opens in 2025.

CSET2 has been the subject of five formal rounds of detailed public consultation between 2016 and 2022.

The GCP has already delivered bus priority measures and significant improvements to road safety along the busy A1307 route as part of phase one of the CSET project.

You can read the CSET2 paper on Cambridgeshire County Council’s website.

You can live stream the Joint Assembly meeting via the https://www.youtube.com/c/greatercambridgepartnership/videos on 12 September.

For more information about the Cambridge South East Transport scheme visit www.greatercambridge.org.uk