Huge new £200m train station opening in famous UK city leaves locals raging for 1 reason

Ambitious plans for a £200 million train station in the historic city of includes space for 1,000 bicycles – but no car park. In what has hailed as a paragon of environmentally conscious transport, Cambridge South will only offer three drop-off vehicle spaces for drivers, provoking accusations of being “anti-motorist”. The new site, which will be Cambridge’s third station, is set to open in 2026 to serve an estimated 1.8 million people. Both Cambridge Station and Cambridge North have over 400 on-site parking bays.

The developers of Cambridge South, which will be based at Francis Crick Avenue, are instead pinning all their hopes on an eco-friendly design, including 1,000 bicycle spaces and solar panels and wildflowers attached to its roofs, which will also be equipped to collect and re-use rainwater.

Staff will be able to park at the station, and its limited provision is also set to include five blue-badge bays, three taxi ranks and a bus stop.

Network Rail said is aiming for a 95% rate of passengers travelling on foot, bike or public transport to Cambridge South, but the development’s proximity to Cambridge University’s biomedical campus has sparked suspicion that it will primarily serve students and researchers, rather than the community at large.

Jill Allen, who lives near the new station, said she would be put off travelling from the new facility by its lack of parking spaces.

“Instead of calling it Cambridge Station, they should have just called it the bio campus commuters’ station because that is what they really want it to be – for those coming to work at the campus and then [going] home again,” she told The Times.

Social media commentators struck a similar note, with one accusing Network Rail of being “anti motorist” and another suggesting that the plans could cause “chaos”, with drivers left with no choice but to “park in nearby streets”.

“If you live 30 miles away in the countryside but Cambridge is your nearest station, [are you] supposed to cycle with your two kids and luggage to get the train to the airport to go on holiday?” a third person added.

Network Rail said the station would serve a projected 27,000 workers at the biomedical campus by 2031, alongside residents in an estimated 4000 new homes to be built in southern Cambridge over the next six years.

A spokesperson added that the design was modelled on the city’s 2018 local plan and would boost “sustainable transport options” including the park-and-ride and bus services from central Cambridge.