The new Fordham By-pass and proposed Ely Southern By-pass would cover a total length of around 5 Miles on a 15 Mile stretch of the A142 between Ely & Newmarket.

4-5 Miles of the two By-passes will be right next to the existing Railway Line.

Total cost of both By-passes were initially estimated at £19 Million but actual cost would be somewhere around £35-£40 Million. The Ely Southern By-pass proposal has been declared economically unviable three times by the Government.

The A14 is the main route to Cambridge from Soham and Newmarket
The A10 is the main route to Cambridge from Soham and Ely
The A1123 between Soham (through Wicken & Stretham) towards the A10 has seen an increase of 70% more traffic in the last 10 years

The A142 Fordham By-pass and the proposed Ely Southern By-Pass would NOT alleviate the traffic flow to the A10 and A14 to Cambridge but increase congestion and bottle necks at Ely Railway Bridge and the A142/A14 Flyover Interchange at Newmarket.

The most cost effective and sensible solution would be to improve the Rail Network by taking people off the Roads and onto Rail. It would also be more environmentally friendly and would not destroy the surrounding countryside

The average cost of building a Railway Station/Platform is around £1.5 Million. The last estimated costs that were made in 1996 for upgrading the existing line between Ely and Newmarket and building a station in Soham was £12 Million which included the following:-

Double Tracking the Railway Line between Soham and Ely, A Station/Platform at Soham, Re-installing the missing Chord between Soham and Newmarket and installing points and signalling along the route.

One Railway have already increased services between Peterborough and London Liverpool Street which pass through Soham and services run 14 times a day, 7 times in each direction.

Network Rail have stated that they are interested in putting more freight on the line between Ipswich and Peterborough (going past Soham). In the last report back in 1994/1995 they said if they wanted to increase freight on the line they would have to double track between Soham and Ely anyway but would rather the local councils pay for it as part of putting a station at Soham. Since then rail freight and passenger services have increased quite considerably.