Cambridge metro plans take a step forward

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has agreed to spend £600,000 drawing up a business case for a new transport system

Plans for a new transport system for Cambridge have taken a step forward.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has approved £600,000 funding for drawing up a business case for the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro (CAM).

The CAM would have about 31 miles (50 km) of new bus-ways and nearly four miles (6.4km) of tunnels.

Some of the first services of the £1.5bn project which do not involve tunnels could be in operation in 2021.

The proposed project would include two underground sections, with one from the west Cambridge site on Madingley Road going to Mill Road.

The £50m Cambridge North rail station opened last year

The other would stretch from Mill Road, to the Cambridge North station which opened last year.

James Palmer, the mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, who chaired today's meeting, said the "benefits" of the scheme extended to people beyond the city.

"If we give them an option where it's far quicker and easier to get in to work without using their cars, they will take that," he said.

"We need to make a move forward, London has had an underground since 1860, we're just starting... this is a new way, a vanguard for small cities," said Mr Palmer.