British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) calls for extension of the rail link to Stansted progress news

21-02-25 Update Zoom Meeting - all welcome:

See: https://brtarail.com/events/ 

Scroll down to Monday 24th February for Stansted Zoom Meeting. 

Any queries or to join our update loop send to richard.brta@gmail.com

13 February 2025

Press Release

 

British Regional Transport Association (BRTA) calls for extension of the rail link to Stansted to arc across to reunite east and west Essex as one east-west rail link with Braintree and Colchester

 

BRTA convened a meeting on Saturday 8^th February at Braintree to bring people together to discuss the matter that if Stansted is to expand, the public should rightly ask their MP’s, Councils and Government to demand contributions to extending the rail link eastwards to link with Braintree and Colchester including a new Parkway Station for Great Dunmow.

 

Benefits would include:

1.     Decluttering the A120 in a context of massive infill development. The road is accident prone and hazardous and needs the relief a proper rail link can offer.

2.     Reunite east and west Essex offering train travel between places like Cambridge and Chelmsford, Harlow to Colchester and all in between.

3.     The meeting also discussed re-connecting Maldon to the main line by rail, a new route would be needed, a study is called for.

 

Richard Pill said after the meeting “Essex deserves better joined-up rail connectivity and we call on councils and others to demand the rail link and routing for it be included in expansion plans for the airport. We aim to hold a Zoom Meeting on 24^th February and all are invited, further details via richard.brta@gmail.com”

 

End of Press Release

 

Further comment: Richard Pill, BRTA CEO 01234 225068

BRTA Response to Rachel Reeve's Statement in Eynsham, Oxfordshire January 2025

Routes have not been shown in consultations since 2019 and ours never! So how can the public objectively have their say or choices? Latest news on Airports, Capacity and overheated SouthEast must lend to a reconsideration of these routes betweem Bedford and Tempsford and how physical links at Tempsford could enlarge rail's market share more for passenger and freight operations?

The statement of Rachel Reeves last week was a scatter gun back-of-a-fag-packet desperado, short of fine detail and blinkered to fit of intent if you were ever going to put people, places, land use, life balances and the environment first.

Government clearly has not thought through the application of its ideas and how much, having locked itself to not charge Income Tax to the better off, how funding will be done? Private or public, there's no such thing as a free lunch!

Our views are as follows:

1. Heathrow Third Runway, the place is already overcrowded, congested and blighted, would it not make sense if we must have such, to spread the load and consider rerouting East-West Rail to serve a 4th London Airport at Thurleigh and run the railway via St Neots and onwards to Cambridge? Moreover, Heathrow needs more and better rail links anyway like Heathrow Southern and the Reading arm. https://heathrowrail.com/

2. On East-West Rail, we do need a rail link if not 2 or 3 more. Our stance of routing has been ignored. We wanted east of Bedford via St John's (see attached) and new-build from the Willington area to approach the Tempsford plains from the south-west not north-west as the current Northern Route offers. It will serve no-one in North Bedfordshire with probably long tunnelling (like HS2) rather than a station! It is a sad irony, that when we launched a Bedford-Sandy extension of the Bedford-Bletchley rail link for East Coast Main Line (ECML) connectivity in 1987, councils objected saying no case, but would not fund a study and also would not entertain it because of 'blockages' which then was less-than 30 houses albeit more expensive houses than those in Poets. Now we have 60 houses to be knocked down and more and the case, as year after year studies rather than delivery was the name of the game (writing ordinary advocates off on cost grounds) and Bedford Borough Council and the former County Council opposed a bridge over the old railway route in 1993 despite other councils writing asking for support for the railway, so A421 Southern Bypass became another blockage to our route. Then from 2017 the 2019 Consultation put the Northern Route but not our route, so it biased the people and has repeated this pattern, yes people want an East-West Rail Link but they can only vote for what is presented to them, rather than the options in this study: https://www.bedford.gov.uk/files/bedford-ewr-station-choice-wider-impacts-final-11-01-24.pdf/download?inline

So we are where we are. If Northern Route goes pear shaped, then ours stands ready to be looked at and supported, but Office for Road and Rail needs tackling on special dispensation for a Level Crossing at Priory Park entrance and also a bridge over the railway at Cardington Road, if a Level Crossing is not suitable, although it was once there until 1982 ish.

Funny how objections to dualling A421/A428 Oxford-Bedford-Cambridge have been muffled compared to the railway throughout, where will all this road-based traffic go upon meeting the urban interfaces like Bedford and Cambridge which both share gridlocked roads at times?

Meanwhile we will continue to bang our drum for satellite stations for Bedford like Oakley, Sharnbrook, Kempston Retail and putting Ampthill back on the railway map.

Thank you for your interest.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

https://brtarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/ and https://brtarail.com/become-a-member/

Write to your MP about this as well, given government finds money and permits new roads, but not this and similar other rail links? How will modal shift back to rail happen, let alone the environmental needs for cleaner transport like rail offers, ever be done? https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24897104.government-cant-afford-oxfordshire-rail-link-says-minister/

Write to your MP and challenge the government's stance: https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons

Quainton-Leicester via Rugby debate - new-build and new-route needed

 Identifying a new rail route (background):

We at BRTA are given to believe that as Quainton Road-Verney is being touted but with a easterly curve for Aylesbury - Milton Keynes integrated with emergent East-West Rail (Oxford-Milton Keynes/Bedford) and the old Claydon GC-Bletchley curve is being abandoned for HS2, a westerly curve also to serve Verney (with development) and onwards new-build to Buckingham and deviation south of Brackley/east of HS2/urban development to a new A43 area Parkway Station, could, with buses, serve Silverstone orbits and Brackley before going on towards Woodford area, A425 Southam-Daventry trunk road/Parkway Station halfway between two expanding urban areas without a railway and onwards via Willoughby area, old GC into Rugby and onwards via new-build with maybe a loop line serving both Magna Park and Lutterworth and entering Leicester via Narborough area of some other route, but old Midland is severely built on, akin to old Varsity Line east of Willington). We ask people to buy Ordnance Survey Maps (new) and study these/take it to the forum covering Verney and Rugby and Leicester (x3). 

On Catesby Tunnel:

1. How much do they need it as a wind tunnel? Could they relocate/build another if rail demand is high?

2. bore a new tunnel adjacent to it

3. Maybe a cutting adjacent to the tunnel and use removed earth for embankment shoring up elsewhere as part of the new-build rail resource?

A study is needed. Local Parish Clerk dislikes the idea of the railway being rebuilt. But from our stance we see these things:

1. West Coast Main Line (WCML) and Midland Main Line (MML) are congested with demand for more trains and inadequate places for them to call at/London Terminal capacity issues.

2. HS2 may sort out more capacity by creaming off Birmingham-London audiences, but refuses to provide intermediate stations like to the expanding Brackley area as an example. That leaves a rail desert and throws new development - people and goods - to the roads, which are congested, main informants of air pollution (tyres and/or exhausts/both) and upgraded roads take more land, which is needed for other things/a scarce resource, seriously undervalued by development demand, creation of brownfield and less room for wildlife, recreation and local food production.

3. Given these dynamics (there's always more!); and given the mooted Quainton-Verney old route new-build for including Aylesbury into East-West Rail, we start with the new proposed by BRTA of a western curve into Verney and then onwards to the Buckingham area, Brackley/Silverstone area and onwards northwards GC old route more or less and/or new-build with realignments or whatever needs to be done, gives/takes.

4. Leicester is a problem. We need transport planners to step back and see the whole gamut which needs addressing principally:

a. Fuller finish of electrification into Leicester from Market Harborough/Wigston to Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and Leeds for one-joined-up network but also

b. Full electrification of Felixstowe-Birmingham lines which also use tracks into and through Leicester.

c. More platforms capacity to receive and entertain more trains including reopened Leicester-Burton-upon-Trent line (Ivanhoe Line), Northampton-Market Harborough - Leicester (Gateway to/from the East Midlands and vice versa).

d. Restoration of the through twin tracks to enable freight to get through the station without delay, as freight by rail is a growth sector and good for getting vehicles off roads and decluttering main roads. If we care about the environment, these are essential to understand.

So, our rail link feeds more trains into Leicester, piecemeal is inadequate, it needs a holistic and cohesive plan, consultation and enable the gamult to be delivered giving more rail-based options and better public transport. 

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

I would abandon any idea of re-opening the old Great Central route through Rugby.  There are two reasons for this: 

1.     The track bed to the North is now a public footpath, which ends at the canal.  From there, it is apparent just how far away is the ‘Birdcage Bridge’ (over the WCML).  The cost of rebuilding the viaduct alone would run to many tens of millions – Probably enough to kill the project on its own.

2.    The line South from Rugby Central runs straight through town.  It is a popular walking & cycling route and is backed onto by hundreds of houses.  Every time that re-opening is raised, this is where the howls of outrage come from.

The GC really needs to connect to the WCML.   Either by following the original route to the canal and then dropping down by an embankment, or, branching off around the Newton/Shawell area, possibly using the old Market Harborough track bed for final approach into Rugby.

In addition, I would not consider any bypass route to the East of Rugby.  A new build railway would undoubtedly cause problems with the land owners and cost many millions per mile.  Anyway, a campaign to re-open a closed railway line is much more sellable.

The idea that anyone would write-out a cheque for up to a billion Pounds to rebuild the GC in one go was always unlikely and with the current state of the public finances, frankly a pipedream.

If the GC is to live again, it needs to be done in stages.  The first priority is passenger services from Aylesbury to Calvert and the East-West line.  Second, push for re-opening Northwards to a parkway station near the A43.  Brackley is a growing town and I believe it would welcome a direct rail service into London.  This could be done at the same time as a campaign to re-open Leicester-Rugby.

As to practicalities, have you considered making common cause with other groups?  The GC is on the Campaign for Better Transport’s list of possible re-openings.

To get anywhere you need the support of local MPs, councillors, Chambers of Commerce, local media etc.  Start small, try to generate enough interest to have a feasibility study funded, to get the ball rolling.

Adrian Carter, BRTA Member

Diagrams of what is being focused on:

What you can do:

1. Join BRTA as a member: 

https://brtarail.com/become-a-member/

2. Write to your MP in support of what we're about: https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons

3. Help us get council, public, other strategic support and funding for studies, finding a constructive pro-rail solution.

4. Join our free email loop for updates: richard.brta@gmail.com

Rugby Forum News and Agenda:

 BRTA Rugby Forum – All Welcome

Saturday 25^th January 2025
2pm lunch – 3-5pm business
Venue: Rupert Brooke, 8-10 Castle Street, Rugby, Warwickshire CV21 2TP
Venue Website: www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/the-rupert-brooke-rugby
Venue Phone: 01788-576759
Please let Simon Barber know in advance if you wish to come via email address: simon4barber@gmail.com
Phone (landline): 020-8940-4399
Phone (mobile): 07522-374740
Agenda:
1.    Appointment of someone to chair the meeting and someone to take notes
2.    Apologies for absence
3.    Introduction to who/what BRTA is/aspires to
4.    Rugby-Leicester via old GC route, old Midland route or new build. Accommodating both Lutterworth (growth town) and Magna Park (one of Europe’s largest industrial parks)
5.    BRTA’s goal of a brand- new corridoric railway for passenger and goods from a Rugby Central Parkway Station with disabled access to the East-West Railway (Oxford-Bletchley) and associated links to and from Leicester/East Midlands via Rugby, Willoughby, Southam/Daventry arc, Woodford Halse, Brackley/Silverstone orbits and maybe serving Buckingham – Verney with realignments/new-build like at Padbury. East and West curves for optimum feed. West gives Oxford, Reading, Swindon, Bath, Bristol, South West and South Wales links and vice versa – footfall and spend, more rail choices and environmental benefits. Alongside HS2, a conventional railway for passenger and freight capacity with local stations for connectivity. Switch £27 billion new roads funding to fund more rail capacity and links?
6.    Current Rugby Bus and Rail matters
7.    Recruitment for BRTA membership and offers to help with this project
8.    Email MP’s and councils/email local news outlets supporting studying, route protection and finding solutions to problems and cutting congestion/air pollution.
9.    Any Other Business
10.          Date, Time, Place, of next meeting (Summer or Autumn 2025) or interim Zoom – can agenda it.



Reader: 
Just a reminder that our Rugby Forum is on this Saturday 25th January 2025 and an agenda and diagram is attached. We need support to the principle of corridor new build of a railway able to take passenger and goods and inform more capacity between Bletchley, Northampton and Rugby. It needs a study to come up with routing options, feasibility, engineering and deviation possibilities. 
Buckingham, Brackley, Banbury, Daventry, Southam and Rugby, let alone grow areas of Magna Park and Lutterworth are growing areas and Leicester is a busy gateway to/from the East Midlands and East Anglia by rail.  Please help us and find a way forward beit Great Central Corridor or adjacent to (new-build) or old Midland Route North of Rugby (many blockages/deviations required) and getting into Leicester itself, given development and blockages.

Our other events are on our website: https://brtarail.com/events/ and other projects can be found on our Blogspot: https://brtarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/

Have your say and give support to improvements around the South West Main Line out of Waterlo!

This report should be of interest to all associated with the South West Main Line out of Waterloo.

re: https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Connecting-South-West-England-Report-Web.pdf

BRTA would welcome for the South West Line a review, audit and study with options for the following:
1. Reinstate the direct curves at Yeovil, in particular the one allowing Weymouth-Exeter direct running for example.
2. Reopen the Lyme Regis Branch enabling commuting off the main line for resort and wider dynamic socio-economic and environmental appeal.
3. Upgrade electrification, double-tracking and signalling and
4. Have longer trains/upgrade stations and platforms
5. Satellite stations around Salisbury need studying as well.
6. What scope for more freight and line-born freight in particular?
If you agree write to your MP in support of the report (email!): https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons

This line has been allowed to be a back-water and vibrancy and a new engagement is required.

I also remind folks that our Westbury Forum can also discuss this and wider issues, date, place and times via my colleague Simon Barber, but May onwards is most likely and listing will be here: https://brtarail.com/events/

BRTA membership is open to all and ideally we need local area reps to help forward our agendas locally and convene pub sort of forums to join and come forward please. Local activism and campaigns often make a difference, but can be thankless tasks for getting the proverbial 'ball' rolling!

I am sure Simon is willing to table forums elsewhere providing costs or donations can be provided and offers of a speaker at a venue, if voluntary is welcome to entertain.

Road Building not the answer to proliferation of pollution and land guzzling! Choose the re-railing of Britain!

There's loads of evidence to suggest roads and proliferations thereof apart from land guzzling, increase traffic and emissions from exhausts, tyres, run-off into streams and more air pollution which affects people and communities in health hazard terms. So: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/01/15/britain-build-more-roads-hit-net-zero-infrastructure-tsar/ would seem erroneous to put it politely!

BRTA seeks to suggest the rtail alternative and our events are worth tapping into and supporting to enable us to gather more support and direct it to aid chances for support where it counts - with decision makers and investors.

https://brtarail.com/events/

I attach a recent diagram, which shows how making more out of the proposed Stansted Airport expansion, could and should mean more and better rail links to it, reuniting east and west Essex and bringing Haverhill into the frame.

Please give us your support and write/email your MP to that end.

Other news since last newsletter, is Neil O'Briend MP for Harborough area, has added his support to our N2MH Campaign and we hope all MP's along the line will do likewise. Thank you.

Here is an example of where switching the new roads budget to greener local rail solutions would make environmental sense, but government is digging heels in? https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24897104.government-cant-afford-oxfordshire-rail-link-says-minister/

BRTA Central Bedfordshire Forum (new name) 12-03-2025 - All Welcome!

15-01-2025

We need membership and donations to fund a questionnaire to gauge interest and sow seeds of ideas for people to mull over and respond to. The meeting is open to all, so all welcome.

Both Flitwick and Ampthill Stations need support in different ways. Wixams is good for the vicinity and north thereof/south Bedford, but Ampthill would serve a 10 mile catchment of around 50, 000 people from M1.East Milton Keynes-A507-CentreParcs -A6 Wrest Park, Marston Vale (access to Luton and London, not east-west!) and all in between - a growing infill development with scant any improved infrastructure and dire parking/basic facilities.

It is the BRTA's view that things must improve and can do so and a new station 'Ampthill Parkway' could serve a niche and positive contribution. Relocation can be done and the Fordfield Road access prove a hand Park and Ride capacity enhancer. Meanwhile Flitwick gets more relief to congestion and air pollution whilst Ampthill Town could gain more sustainable flows of footfall and spend all-year-round from wider audiences.

Ampthill-Bedford and vice versa via Wixams for Universal Leisure Park would also boost Bedford Town Centre and connect to an east-west rail facility. Let's never lose sight that both areas are a part of Bedfordshire and our own county needs some sort of unity in cohesive rail infrastructure and join-up-ness. How is it councils can only deal with just one rail project per time, but multiple road schemes?

Arguably, splitting into 3 small unitaries was a mistake? One County-wide Unitary could have been more cohesive, now regional reform, could sweep away in all but name, whereas arcing local to regional if accessible and can inform positive traffic and air pollution reductions. 

https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/air-pollution?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=climate-change&utm_content=FY202324-11_generic&source=FN0000AWR&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAs5i8BhDmARIsAGE4xHyP60cHeTxema718mg9Wn6d4MpO3hUkTje8ZwHe012CAs4Ze2Y7QQ0aAis7EALw_wcB

We need your help and support please. Thank you.

Our Sandy Forum aims to tackle East Beds/West Anglia issues, please follow https://brtarail.com/events/

BRTA Central Bedfordshire Area Forum Agenda for Wednesday

12 March 1pm lunch; 2-4pm business Venue: The Swan Pub (Side Lounge), 1 Dunstable Road, FLITWICK, Beds. MK45 1HP Venue Phone: 01525 – 754777 (landline); 07944-044003 (mobile)

For further information please contact BRTA Forums and Fixtures Officer: Simon Barber, Email address: simon4barber@gmail.com Phone (landline): 020-8940-4399 Phone (mobile): 07522-374740

Agenda:

1.

Apologies for absence

2.

Minutes of previous meeting and matters arising

3.

Ampthill Station Campaign:

a.

Leafleting – Simon is lead with David Ferguson assisting plus any other volunteers with them. Aim is all Ampthill, Flitwick, Maulden and surrounds get a leaflet drop once per year and outlets like libraries.

b.

Unless we can get a round-table of interested persons willing to fund taking the project forward it is stalling whilst development pressures abound and land loss highly likely to development, showing the view of Ampthill Town Council to ‘green-belt’ as a bit of a nonsense.

4.

Flitwick Station:

a.

Disability access – lifts to platforms etc

b.

Existing from top of the bridge and adjacent crossing to The Swan side improvements for pedestrians.

c.

Bus links and reliability of timetables

d.

Cycle-walking between the two principal towns

5.

Wixams progress and implications + Universal project – any news?

6.

South Bedfordshire Corridor New Rail Link for Luton Airport Parkway to Leighton Linslade for Milton Keynes for people and goods by rail.

7.

Any Other Business

8.

Day Date Time and Place of Next Meeting: Suggest October 2025

Notes: If you wish to help please consider the following:

1.

Write to your MP in support of what we are advocating

2.

Join BRTA as a member and offer to help with what needs doing

3.

Donate to BRTA as funds help inform leaflets getting our message across.

4.

Think of ways to work on Flitwick and Ampthill Town Councils to support BRTA calls and collaborate.

https://brtarail.com/events/ and https://www.facebook.com/ReopenAmpthillStation 

Note: richard.brta@gmail.com to discuss further/join our loop. Attend meeting, donate, join, be willing to help, is exactly what we need please.

Please find attached agenda for BRTA Central Beds Area Forum (note new name) and widened discussion agenda. 

All are welcome. Everyone pays for their own food. Frequency will depend on support and attendance/momentum.

Disappointed about Ampthill Town Council lack of support for a new railway station of its name, disappointed Centre Parcs and some others will not sponsor/help fund the questionnaire on Ampthill-Flitwick Stations matters and access, but we live in hope for better times. Central Beds Council interest, support and engagement, also disappointing.

On the South Beds Corridor, the old route lost to Guided Busway, but a new route needs studying to come up with options. You get out what you put in. BRTA facilitates and tables, but it is incumbent on others to optimise outcomes and work with us. As Kennedy once said "think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!" In the same way BRTA facilitates and empowers new members and others to come together and work for more and better public transport. 

All other events are on our website, all welcome and enquiries via richard.brta@gmail.com or other colleagues please.