Peterborough - Transport

Transport

Peterborough is a major stop on the East Coast Main Line, 45–50 minutes' journey time from central London, with high-speed intercity services from King's Cross to Edinburgh Waverley operated by the East Coast Main Line Company at around a 20-minute frequency, and slower commuter services terminating at Peterborough operated by First Capital Connect. It is a major railway junction where a number of cross-country routes converge. East Midlands Trains operate the Peterborough to Lincoln Line, with through services to Doncaster and a route from Liverpool Lime Street to Norwich or Cambridge via the main line north of Peterborough; CrossCountry operate the Birmingham to Peterborough Line and with Abellio Greater Anglia, the Ely to Peterborough Line, with through services to Cambridge and Stansted Airport operated by the former and to Ipswich and London Liverpool Street by the latter. Peterborough has a business airport with a paved runway at Holme and a recreational airfield hosting a parachute school at Sibson.

The River Nene, made navigable from the port at Wisbech to Northampton by 1761, passes through the city centre and a green viaduct carries the railway over the river. It was built in 1847 by Lewis Cubitt, who was more famous for his bridges in Australia, India and South America. Apart from some minor repairs in 1910 and 1914 (the steel bands and cross braces around the fluted legs) the bridge remains as he built it. Now a listed structure, it is the oldest surviving cast iron railway bridge in the UK. By the Town Bridge, the Customs House, built in the early eighteenth century, is a visible reminder of the city's past function as an inland port. The Environment Agency navigation starts at the junction with the Northampton arm of the Grand Union Canal and extends for 91 miles (147 km) ending at Bevis Hall just upstream of Wisbech. The tidal limit used to be Woodston Wharf until the Dog-in-a-Doublet lock was built five miles (8 km) downstream in 1937.

The A1/A1(M) primary route (part of European route E15) broadly follows the path of the historic Great North Road from St Paul's Cathedral in the heart of London, through Peterborough (Junction 17), continuing north a further 335 miles (539 km) to central Edinburgh. In 1899 the British Electric Traction Company sought permission for a tramway joining the northern suburbs with the city centre. The system, which operated under the name Peterborough Electric Traction Company, opened in 1903 and was abandoned in favour of motor buses in 1930, when it was merged into the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company. Today, bus services in the city are operated by several companies including the Stagecoach Group (Cambus and Viscount) and Delaine Buses. Despite its large-scale growth, Peterborough has the fastest peak and off-peak travel times for a city of its size in the UK, due to the construction of the parkways. The Local Transport Plan anticipated expenditure totalling around £180 million for the period up to 2010 on major road schemes to accommodate development.

The combination of rail connections to the Port of Felixstowe and to the East Coast Main Line as well as a road connection via the A1(M) has led to Peterborough being proposed as the site of a 334 acres (1.35 km2) rail-road logistics and distibution centre to be known as Magna Park.

The Peterborough Millennium Green Wheel is a 50-mile (80 km) network of cycleways, footpaths and bridleways which provide safe, continuous routes around the city with radiating spokes connecting to the city centre. The project has also created a sculpture trail, which provides functional, landscape artworks along the Green Wheel route and a Living Landmarks project involving the local community in the creation of local landscape features such as mini woodlands, ponds and hedgerows. Another long-distance footpath, the Hereward Way, runs from Oakham in Rutland, through Peterborough, to East Harling in Norfolk.