Extending Wisbech rail link from March to Chatteris could make it more viable

Extending Wisbech railway from March to Chatteris and on to the proposed new Anglian Water reservoir could make the scheme more viable.

Members of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s transport and infrastructure committee expressed their disappointment at the findings of a report published last week by Network Rail on the possibility of re-opening the line.

The report found that the Benefits Cost Ratio (BCR) – the figure which helps justify the need for a transport scheme in terms of spending – was not what the committee had hoped for.

It means there is a need to rethink the approach to the much hoped-for rail connection and how it can be made more cost-effective.

Cllr Chris Seaton, Fenland District Councillor, agreed the BCR was disappointing and he said: “I am extremely concerned what we are trying to do is fit a rail link – Wisbech to March – into a BCR.

“What we need to do is present it in a way that is actually attainable and at the moment we are so far away.”

He pointed out that rail travel is changing especially from how it was pre-pandemic with most train journeys now being taken for leisure purposes and not for commuting.

As a result, he suggested that a possible way forward could be to extend the Wisbech to March line to Chatteris and from there to the proposed Anglian Water reservoir where there will eventually be leisure opportunities.

Cllr Seaton admitted it might still not provide the BCR required but it might make the case more applicable to the current Government’s aims of improving infrastructure and leisure.

He added that it could tick boxes in that way.

Cambridgeshire Mayor Dr Nik Johnson concurred with Cllr Seaton and said the suggestion had previously been discussed at some length and he also said that given the Government’s goals, it was a possibility.

He said he would be happy to work with local representatives to come up with solutions.

Judith Barker, the CPCA’s executive director of place and connectivity, told the committee the Combined Authority already had strong links with Anglian Water and they could perhaps work together to look at ways of improving the BCR.

It was agreed that officers should look at a revised scope for the rail link including extending it to Chatteris and the reservoir and to bring a new report that includes looking at leisure opportunities to the committee in the spring next year.