News releases

Atkins-designed Cambridge Science Park station in UK gets green light - 14 January 2014

Plans for a new Atkins-designed railway station at Cambridge Science Park in the UK have been unanimously approved. The new station will link Cambridge's main business areas to London with journey times of 30 minutes.

This key project creates a new public square as a focus for the transport hub which joins up rail and bus services, cycling, car and pedestrian facilities for the northern fringes of Cambridge. Atkins provided full multidisciplinary design services to Cambridgeshire County Council, working closely with Network Rail to deliver the proposals which received a 90 per cent approval rating from the public consultation.

Stan Doyle, director, Atkins, said: "We've worked together to create a landmark building which will help transform the area and provide a platform for economic growth. Our design puts the passenger experience first, whilst acknowledging Cambridge's leading role in the development of science and technology."

The scheme will include:
• a new station building with an integrated footbridge linking to three platforms and other rail infrastructure to be used by around 3,000 passengers a day
• the extension of the busway to the station as well as linking to the new Cambridgeshire town of Northstowe
• a high quality public square, pedestrian and cycle access routes
• cycle parking for 1,000 bicycles
• a taxi drop-off and pick-up area
• and a 450 space car park with disabled and short stay parking.

A key design feature is the perforated pattern in the station's rainscreen cladding which was derived from British mathematician John Horton Conway's 'Game of Life', a cellular automaton or mathematical model which he developed at the University of Cambridge.

Following approval, the Council will now be able to move onto the construction phase of the project which is expected to open in December 2015.

Cambridgeshire County Councillor Ian Bates, cabinet member for growth and planning, said: "This new station will provide fantastic benefits for the people of Cambridgeshire, providing a transport interchange linked to the busway. It will boost economic growth and improve access to the business area of Cambridge as well as the new Northstowe development.

"Delivering this station has been a long term goal of the County Council and we have been innovative in working with Government and the rail industry to bring this forward and fund it."

Services provided by Atkins - which has been involved since the 2006 Major Scheme Business Case - include planning, architecture, civil and structural engineering, railway engineering systems, building services, and environment and landscape architecture. 

Ends

For more information:

Richard Seston
Marketing communications manager, Design and Engineering 		richard.seston@atkinsglobal.com
Tel: +44 7834 506233 / +44 1332 225660 

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Notes to editors:

Atkins

Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com) is one of the world's leading design, engineering and project management consultancies*, employing some 17,400 people across the UK, North America, Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. Our people's breadth and depth of expertise and drive to ask why has allowed us to plan, design and enable some of the world's most complex and time critical projects.

*14th largest global design firm (Engineering News-Record 2013) and the third largest multidisciplinary consultancy in Europe (Svensk Teknik och Design 2012).

Recent projects

Atkins is working across urban regeneration, masterplanning, national energy programmes, major transport schemes, water and environment projects - applying smart design solutions on projects including:

  • Doha Central Planning Office - helping to co-ordinate Qatar's National 2030 Vision for world class transport infrastructure, which will bring major benefits to the economy;
  • The London 2012 Games infrastructure transformation - as technical advisor to London's boroughs as the Olympic Park moves into its legacy configuration as a follow-on role to our work as the Games' official engineering and design provider;
  • UAE's peaceful nuclear new build programme - providing technical assurance to lenders backing the United Arab Emirates' most ambitious energy infrastructure projects;
  • North Sea and Gulf of Mexico oil and gas platforms - extending the operational life of critical oil and gas platforms to allow cost-efficient and safe recovery of fuel sources from mature fields;
  • SSE offshore wind alliance - provision of expert engineering and design support for the UK's biggest offshore wind alliance with Scottish and Southern Energy;
  • Crossrail - designing the Central London twin tunnels and station architecture for Europe's biggest civil engineering scheme which will see tunnels passing beneath 470 listed buildings and critical infrastructure;
  • Etihad Railway - providing multidisciplinary design expertise on the 1,200 km Etihad Rail network which will revolutionise passenger and freight transport in the UAE;
  • Denmark ERTMS - providing multidisiplinary signalling expertise on the first countrywide installation of an ERTMS train control and management system in Denmark;
  • Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge - lead consultant on this integral part of the new Hong Kong link road scheme which will significantly boost land connectivity in the region;
  • Lowestoft Sixth Form College - design of the ultralow energy consumption Lowestoft College in the UK which aims to reduce operational energy use by more than 60% compared to previous designs;
  • UK National Composites Centre - providing technical expertise to bring the latest lightweight carbon fibre materials to all engineering sectors, helping to develop innovative applications and reduce costs and carbon;
  • US Environmental Protection Agency - providing technical assessment and analysis of national water-related resources and ecological systems in North America;
  • Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) superfast broadband - providing technical, commercial and procurement support to help deliver superfast broadband to one of Europe's most remote regions.
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