Chisholm Trail Questions and Answers
General
Q. Why do it?
A. The Chisholm Trail (CT) is a strategic,walking and cycling route, which will transport project that will provide a largely off-road foot and cycle link between the north and the south of the city as well as better access to rail stations and employment sites. Cambridge Rail Station and the new North Cambridge Station crossing the river at the location of the proposed Abbey-Chesterton Bridge adjacent to Ditton Meadows. The route will provide an attractive off-road links to key businesses, residential and commercial areas allowing people to travel easily across city without usingthe use of their cars.
The key benefit of the route is that it would provide direct, quickerand safer cycle and walking accessfor residents travelling within the City for work, education or leisure., north-south, or vice-versa.
The proposed Trail will link into a network of existing cycle ways and create a high quality route from Trumpington and Addenbrookes Hospital in the south of Cambridge all the way to St Ives in the north-west of Cambridgeshire, viausing the Guided Busway cycle track.
Q. What’s this report about and where can I find it?
A.The Chisholm Trail proposals were presented to the City Deal Executive Board and permission to go out to consultation was agreed. The report is available via the Document Library at the City Deal website:
Q. When is the public consultation?
The public consultation was held in autumn 2015.will begin in October and run to the 30 November. The public consultation will included: leaflets and questionnaires delivered to homes and businesses near the route; exhibitions; library displays; online information and survey available at and publicity in local media.
Q. How long will the Chisholm Trail take to build/When will it be open?
A. Construction could start in 2017. It will be built in phases and is expected to be completedover a period of three to five years. Phase One covers the area from Moss Bank, Ditton Meadows, the Leper Chapel, Barnwell Lakes and Coldham’s Common.Phase Two covers Cromwell Road and Brampton Road and the route alongside the railway line. It is possible that we will be working on some phases consecutively. Some stretches of the Trail will be quicker to implement than others. As and when work finishes in an area, the new path will be made available for people to use for walking and cycling.
Route
Q. Why this route? Why not all along the railway line?
A. This route has been chosen because it is the quickest, most practical and direct means to get from Cambridge Station to the site of the planned Cambridge North Staition, whilst keeping users away from busy traffic. The Trail follows the railway line where there is space available and links a number of Cambridge’s most beautiful green areas together. Some areas along the of the rail line corridor is are unavailable due to new developments and operational rail infrastructure.
Q. Will this encouragepeople to cycle?
A. Providing a mainly off- road low motor traffic safe route should encourage more people to consider cycling to work or to the railway stationse. People are often put off cycling by mixing with heavy traffic. With growth and traffic congestion in the city set to increase, we believe that more people will choose to travel by cycle and foot where suitable infrastructure is available.
Q. How does it relate to the Busway?
A. The route will link to each end of the Busway at the Cambridge Station and Cambridge North Station. current and future train stations.This cycleway therefore provides a largely off-road route all the way from St Ives to Trumpington.
Q. How do you get across Coldhams Lane?
A. We are working will work with colleagues in our Road Safety team to create a safe crossing area for both pedestrians and cyclists across Coldhams Lane.The exact form of the crossing has not yet been decided and is part of Phase Two.
Q. What are you doing about the safety of the underpass on Coldhams Common?
Sightlines improvements and headroom improvements are being considered will be made to make for the underpass on Coldhams Common more accessible.
Q. Why not widen the Green Dragon Bridge?
A. The Green Dragon Bridge is not part of the proposed route of the Chisholm Trail. To cross the river at this point would requireabout 1 mile of extra travel, which is particularly disadvantageous for pedestrians. The Trail needs to be direct and convenient in order to encourage people out of their cars modal shift from motor vehicles to means ofand to choose more sustainable forms of travell. and thus reduce congestion.
Q. My garden backs directly on to the railway line. I have security concerns.
A. We are happy to discuss any on site specific concerns with local residents.AIt appears that all propertieswhich back directly onto the route are fenced off, and this will remain the same. The increase in pedestrian and cycle traffic may support better security in these areas.
Q. I live on Brampton Road, how does this affect me?
A. As Phase Two develops Wwe will be carrying out a letter drop for Brampton Road residents and arranging a meeting to discuss options for the route as it affects this road. At the present time, cyclists can and do use this quiet road as a route into and out of the cCity. The scheme may present opportunities to make improvements to the look and feel of the street.street environment. This would be done following discussion with local residents.
Q. Will roads be resurfaced as part of these works?
A. There is potential for the quiet on-road sections to be resurfaced. We are also considering landscaping and ‘streetscaping’improvements to the street environment of Brampton Road and Cromwell Road, this will be subject to further consultation with local residents.
Q. What happens if the Abbey-ChestertonBridge on Ditton Meadows does not go ahead?
A. The route will link to the existing National Cycle Network Route 51 at Ditton Meadows.. Other parts of the proposed Trail serve different prospective journeys and offerstand-alone value.
Q. What’s happening with the Abbey-Chesterton bridge?
A. The bridge is a separate project, with monies from outside the Greater Cambridge City Deal. Architects have been appointed and are drawning up a design for a bridge in line with feedback from the public consultation and ongoing engagement. The bridge received the go ahead from will be considered by the County Council’s Economy & Environment Committee and planning permission was recently granted. shortly and any decision is subject to planning permission.
Environmental Impacts
Q. How will this affect Coldham’s Common? Commons are important ancient green spaces.A. The Chisholm Trail aims to improve the public realm. The Trail will link green areas within the city, improve the public realmwith high quality paths, signage and public art as well as making Stourbridge Common,Coldhams Common, the historic Leper Chapel and Ditton Meadows more accessible for people on foot and cycles.
On Coldham’s Common where more space is needed to improve paths this will, wherever possible, be mitigated by the reduction of excessive tarmacked area elsewhere e.g. at access point to Coldham’s Common, off Coldhams Lane. We will be carrying out ecological and environmental surveys along the route to identify areas where we can take mitigating action.
Q. What is the affect on Ditton Meadows?
A. A dual-use path along the side of Ditton Meadows near the railway line is proposed. The width and style of the path is subject to further engagementconsultation and detailed design. Ditton Meadows land is privately owned by Gonville & Caius College.
Q. Will the route be lit?
A. The route will be lit where this is considered necessary.. We are engaging with stakeholders and the public consulting as to whether lighting is appropriate at the Stourbridge Common/Ditton Meadows area. (Coldhams Common is currently lit.) Lighting is likely to be one of the key issues raised and debated in the consultation. Solar studs may be appropriate in some locations.
Q. What is the effect on the Leper Chapel? This is an ancient building of historic significance.
A. The Trail will provide better access to the Chapel from the river, via a green route and it will be linked with the area south of Newmarket Road through a new underpass. It will also provide disabled access to the Leper Chapel grounds.Great care will be taken to preserve and enhance the setting of the Chapel, reflecting its significance as one of the oldest buildings in Cambridge.
We arein discussion with Cambridge Past, Present and Future, the owners of the Chapel,in order to achieve the best possible outcome. The proposed Newmarket Road underpass wouldimprove access to this area, andencourage more people to visit this important historic site. There is also the potential to provide future facilities for the Chapel and rejuvenate the area around Barnwell Lake and improve this open space.
Q. What are the health implications and the impacts on air quality?
A.The Trail will help to encourage and facilitate local people to walk and cycle more for utility, recreational and health purposes. Provision ofquiet routes for walkers and cyclists will offer an attractive alternative to car mean fewer car journeys and it is hoped this will help improvements to air quality.
Q. Will there be any Are you thinking of having any public art along the route?
A. Yes, we are investigating the types of public art which could be used to enhance the attractiveness of the Trail. We plan to have information boards including environmental and historical information along the route.
Technical
Q. What’s the width of the cycleway?
A. The width of the cycleway will vary along the route as space allows and in order to take into account the surrounding area.
Q. Will this walking and cycling route be segregated?
A. Segregation will be considered, as space along the route allows. Where possible we will aim to segregate the path we will construct, however, it is too early to specifythe extent of the segregation that what we will be able to achieve.
Q. So at the Railway Station the Trail will go past parked cars. Surely this isn’t safe?
A. Both cyclists and pedestrians currently traverse the car park, however,as part of detailed design for Phase Two we will belooking at the way the parking is configured in order to achieve the best layout.The cars tend to park here for the duration of the day, so there are few vehicle movements outside early morning and late evening.
Q. Why an underpass for Newmarket Road instead of a road crossing?
A. The use of an underpass will avoid an increase in the use of the existing toucan crossing, which would further delay road users on this key bus route. Should an underpass go ahead, the toucan crossing will remain in order to serve existing users.
An underpass will provide access to the Leper Chapel and links to the green spaces. We will look to make the underpass attractive to reflect those materials used in the Leper Chapel. It will be lit and designed to be as sympathetic as possible to the historic surroundings.
Q. What materials will be used to build the Trail?
A. The type of materials used will need to take account of future maintenance costs whilst reflecting the particular needs of attractive areas and settings. Officers will be engaging with the Local Liaison Forum and other stakeholders on this element of the detailed design as Phase One and Phase Two of the Trail progress and construction begins.
Q. When is the planning application going in?
A. We would envisage this scheme going to Planning in 2016.