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Route Alignments

Cambourne to Great Shelford Maps

*** Health Warning: These drawings date from January 2022 and may not represent the final proposal. ***

On the 10th of May 2021 our lawyers Leigh Day sent a Freedom of Information request to EWRCo. After nearly 3 years of legal and other pressure we received some answers. One of the questions was this. “EWR is asked to provide any report or other analyses it holds which caused it to conclude that embankments and viaducts will be required between Cambourne and Hauxton Junction on the southern approach.

The response was a series of detailed plans and vertical sections as follows:

(The plans are in PDF format, they can also be downloaded as high resolution PNG images – see at the bottom of the webpage).

These plans date from January 2022 and so may be out of date. Notice the fields marked in purple which will be needed for construction work. If you don’t know what that looks like have a look at this video of EWR CS1 under construction at Calvert.

We also asked about the vertical alignment for the northern approach to Cambridge and the following section diagrams were provided.

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The same first four plans can be downloaded in high resolution PNG image format below (as an alternative to PDF).

10 replies on “Cambourne to Great Shelford Maps”

Complete mess & sacrilege of the countryside and precious habitat plus it will ruin so many peoples lives – and for what? Railway travel is a disaster as it is and expensive so disgusting waste of money .

Briefly, wrt the area around Harston. This is the first I have seen about a Harston tunnel to accommodate the junction of EWR and the Kings X line. Also, there appears to be a new road to the south giving access from Newton to the A10. Has anyone seen any reference to either of these proposals before ? Or are these aspects of the design that have changed since Jan-22 ?

The realignment of the B1368 features in the 2021 consultation documents if that is what you are talking about.

Not the B1368 in the north of Harston. I was highlighting the “new” Harston Road, Newton / Newton Road, Harston route allowing the level crossing to be closed and a route from Newton, joining the A10 just south of the EWR route and the Harston southern boundary.

What a colossal devastation of the the country side and food producing land for this build. The scale and vastness of the ghastly embankments are also very evident. Any reduction in height by fraction is still an tremendously bad outcome. At to what end ? There is no business case, there is no justification for the railway at all, especially when those impacted most are unable to use it locally at all.

The devastation of our localities is breath taking at multiple dimensions.

The loss of food producing farm land, environmental impact, people’s welfare, blight on home values to name a few.

And to what end? There is no business case for the proposal. There are no passenger numbers to justify it.

Those impacted most are unable to even use the line, even if 150,000 homes are built on the land (god forbid!).

I am horrified by the extent of the destruction of the countryside and the impact that this will have on our area in particular. The purple area needed for construction is immediately adjacent and behind our property and I wonder how this will be accessed? Royston Lane, Comberton is a lane in a historically significant conservation area around the parish church. How will large vehicles gain access to these areas? The lane cannot be widened here? What happens to Lots Way? We will need a dilapidation survey as the house is 5ms from the road! This is appalling as the actual rail line is about 1500ms away! Sympathy to others badly impacted. This is a nightmare and so very, very wrong for the environment in particular! The mitigations are woefully inadequate.

Further to my comment, the construction site off Royston lane is in fact in the Green Belt! I wonder if once the works are complete, the devastation will be so extensive that it will be easier to develop and build houses? Just a thought…..

On our land we have worked over 30 years to create a lovely bit of countryside with mature and semi-mature trees, plus a large field under arable farming. The whole field is due to become railway or construction area and most of the rest has been designated ‘woodland habitat creation’ as if there was nothing there. This is just a dot in the larger scheme, but still terrible destruction for no good reason.

What on Earth is happening? This is insanity! Nobody wants it, nobody needs it … madness! Such beautiful countryside, food producing land … madness!

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