Issue - meetings

A.      Cambridge North Station Updates

 

 

B.      Fen Road Level Crossing

 

To update the community about the following:

 

·        Proposed commissioning date

·        Design progress with so far

·        Road closure

·         Composition of the Fen road Level Crossing working committee

Cambridge North Station

 

The Committee received a presentation from Network Rail regarding the progress on the Cambridge North Station plan.

 

The presentation included the following:

 

     i.        A new planning application would be submitted to the March Joint Development Control Committee.

    ii.        The visual impact of the station remained unchanged.

   iii.        Further changes to the car park could be decided at a later date.

  iv.        Current work on site was addressing the changes to the freight line layout.

   v.        The process for sourcing equipment and agreeing disruptions to active train lines was explained. These needed to be agreed many months in advance.

  vi.        The pre-fabricated construction of the station platforms was explained.

 vii.        Weekend closures of Fen Road crossing were due to end soon and the public were thanked for their cooperation during the unavoidable road closures.

viii.        The target opening date for the new station was now May 2017.

  ix.        The project was behind the original target date due to a number of factors including: planning consents, contracts, agreeing temporary line closures and funding issues.

   x.        Full service plans would be published soon.

 

 

Councillor Bird

Would all of the station platforms be wheelchair accessible?

 

A. Yes. There would be step free access to all platforms and the ticket office.

 

Paul Mumford (Planning Team Leader, South Cambridgeshire District Council)

 

The planning application would be considered by the Joint Development Control Committee shortly. This was a joint decisions making committee consisting of Cambridge City Council. South Cambs District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council. This would be the third time that a planning application for this station would be considered. However, all had agreed that a station in this location was acceptable. A third consideration of the application was needed as there had been a change of applicant and changes to the design of the station. The current application included a ground level only car park provision. The consultation period for this application had not yet closed.

 

Fen Road Level Crossing

 

The Committee received a presentation from Network Rail regarding the progress of the Fen Road Level Crossing improvements.

 

The presentation included the following:

 

     i.        The outline design had now been completed.

    ii.        Contact to deliver the project had gone out to tender.

   iii.        Network Rail was working with the community to minimise the impact of any closures.

  iv.        Work was on-going to secure additional land in the area to improve the safety of the crossing.

   v.        Other interested parties were being consulted.

  vi.        The work was due to be completed by June 2017.

 

The following questions were addressed:

 

Q1. Michael Bond

There appears to be an unofficial access route from Fen Road to Haling Way.

 

A. This was a temporary solution to allow pedestrian access while the work was on-going. The owner of the land had agreed the temporary use of this path. Fencing would be reinstated once the access was no longer required. The owner of the land had alternative, longer term plans for this site.

 

Q2. Michael Bond

Why was the level crossing work being delivered after the station?

 

A. Signalling work was very complex and complicated. It would not be done while any other work was on-going in the area for safety reasons.

 

Q3. Councillor Smart

Why was a single deck car park being delivered? Work to extend it at a later date would cause disruption and increase pressures on parking in the area.

 

A. Any proposals for a larger car park would need to be subject to their own planning process. Adding a second deck at a later date could be done sectionally to minimise the disruption. Network rail were aware of the need to manage parking.

 

Chris Howell

This project has subjected to many delays. What lessons had been learnt?

 

A. Network Rail endeavoured to learn from every project and lessons learn had been applied to other projects. However, as the project had evolved things had changed. At the time, there had been good reasons for all decision made regarding this project.

 

Councillor Todd-Jones thanked Network Rail for their interesting presentation.