Study into new transport for Cambridge begins

Research into the best new form of public transport for Cambridge has begun with options under consideration including trams and a light rail network.

The Cambridge Growth Company (CGC), set up by central government in 2024, is investigating which mode of transport is the most appropriate for the city and the surrounding area in terms of "feasibility, deliverability, value for money and environmental impact".

Other options include expanding the use of automated vehicles and busways.

Paul Bristow, Mayor of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority – a local delivery body, which is also working on the study – said the work was an "important step" towards "action".

The two bodies will narrow down the options as part of the Mass Rapid Transit Study which was commissioned last year and officially launched on Monday. It could also be a "lower scale intervention", the Cambridge Growth Company said.

They will then produce a strategic outline business case — a document typically produced towards the beginning of a major infrastructure project which lays out costs and benefits. It will include a "preferred way forward".

Both the CGC and the combined authority say the work is aimed at boosting growth in Cambridge, in line with the government's priorities for the city and wider region.

The government has previously announced £500m funding to expand housing, business and infrastructure.

Philip Harker, technical director of the CGC, said "congestion in Cambridge is already holding back our communities and our economy".

"Employers are telling us that [their] investment decisions are being delayed until credible solutions are found," he said.

Bristow said the study "restarts a long-stalled conversation and supports the government's wider growth ambitions".

The Conservative mayor pledged to build light rail – a system of urban trams – when elected in 2024 and has since appointed a light rail commissioner for the county.

Proposals for light rail were drawn up in 2016 and updated in 2020-21, according to the independent company Cambridge Connect.

Previous Conservative mayor, James Palmer, begun developing plans for an autonomous metro system in Cambridge in 2017, which were scrapped in 2021.

Labour mayor Dr Nik Johnson, who succeeded him, pioneered bus franchising, a system which would see buses in Cambridgeshire brought under public ownership, but this scheme was placed under review and delayed until at least 2028.

Separately, the Greater Cambridge Partnership, made up of local councils and Cambridge University, began a trial of autonomous buses in the university city in 2021. It has bid for £4m more government funding to extend it past March 2026.

It also plans to add more busways to Cambridgeshire's existing network, including a route between the A11 travel hub and Cambridge Biomedical Campus to the south of the city.

The CGC and combined authority say they will work with local authorities, transport operators, business and community representatives throughout the process.

The study is due for completion in June 2026.

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