FAQs

At this stage we want to understand your priorities for public transport, and what you think of the different ideas for delivering better public transport and reducing congestion. The feedback from this engagement will be carefully assessed and will be used to inform the GCP’s future work. This could include being used to inform a public consultation on more specific options in due course.

We must take action now to improve journeys into and around Cambridge – both now and in the future. We need to transform public transport in Greater Cambridge to ensure it can cope with the growth of this area.

Following this engagement we will work up detailed proposals for the public transport network, including timescales. Many infrastructure improvements are already planned, with big changes happening in the next five years. We’ll need to consider how to improve services alongside this.

Connecting villages into the network will be important to make sure we have public transport that works for the whole of Greater Cambridge and beyond. We want to make journeys simpler and better. This could include new services, and new walking and cycling routes either directly into the city or connecting up with the strategic network. We're also expanding Park & Ride provision, so that those who want or need to do part of their journey by car can leave it outside the city and have a fast, reliable route in.

We are not proposing a particular scheme or scheme – we want to understand your views on the different ideas and principles. The GCP Board will then consider how to proceed – if a scheme was proposed there would be a full consultation on all the details.

Cambridge is growing rapidly, with thousands of new jobs created in the last few years and more on the way. This success brings challenges, including congestion. We need to think about how best to get people into, out of and around our city and the wider area.

New roads will just connect to a system that is already at capacity – they are incredibly expensive, and come with a range of environmental and social costs. To be sustainable we need to use what we already have more effectively.

Our initial estimates suggest an investment of at least £20m per year is needed to deliver a world class network for Greater Cambridge. Following this engagement we will work up detailed proposals, including costings.

There are many benefits from more people walking or cycling and from flexible working, but the jobs and growth being created in Greater Cambridge will mean many more people moving around and not all people can cycle to work or work from home.

Car sharing is to be encouraged and will clearly reduce the number of cars on our roads. But our modelling shows that even with significantly more cycling and car sharing we will still need to take further action to free up our roads for transformational public transport to realise its full potential.

We are currently considering how exemptions will apply in each of the measures and would set out details in future for any proposed scheme. We want to hear your views on how the scheme could work for you and your community.