West Northampton Window of Opportunity?

West Northampton Window of Opportunity?

#re: https://westnorthants.citizenspace.com/place/transport-strategy-and-action-plans-consultation/

Better late than never! We need a new study updated for a Northampton-Bedford rail link (part of Thameslink extension?) to ensure Northampton 40 minute transit times to Universal (Wixams new station) to a Theme Park estimated to offer 26, 000 jobs and court 8-million visitors per year. 

Likewise, we need that new rail link with new routing options (consult us!) to bolt on/have an arm direct to the new east-west rail link design going east for direct Northampton-Cambridge transits (passenger and freight) to be included, not disenfranchised!

Please email your local MP: 

https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons?sort=1

 in support of our calls, respond to the consultation and help BRTA usher the agenda along. Join BRTA: https://brtarail.com/become-a-member/

Some BRTA representatives may be having a meeting with the council on how we can respectively work collaboratively together. Our priorities are:

1. Updated studies as to business case and feasibility with routing options and how to overcome engineering and routing considerations like a new route north of Olney (A509/A428 corridors) - previous studies showed potential.

2. Pooling time, talent and resources in coalition/statement of common agreement with other councils and agencies to take the project forward. Not 2050 retro-thought, but start now in earnest as we mean to go on to catch up and engage to the full to ensure the Northampton area gets its full share with the strategic local and inter-regional rail benefits which informs regeneration and benefits off the rails too! Modal choices, modal shift, lower emissions, better health, quality of life and speeding up end-to-end timings on and off the rails, cutting congestion through what rail can offer.

3. Ensuring land north of Bromham enables a railway, not developed over and also land for a flyover from the west to enable Thameslink/other trains into Bedford Midland from the north onto the slow lines. A second bridge across the River Great Ouse may also be needed for these purposes as well.

BRTA follows the utilisation theory, which is 'if it is provided, people and goods can opt for rail more, if it isn't they can't and so are disenfranchised.' 

It would also inform a Bletchley-Bedford-Northampton loop for non time critical operations off main lines. That should incentivise Milton Keynes Central to collaborate as it would create a few more paths on the West Coast Main Line between Northampton and Bletchley.

The above is part of the BRTA feedback-response, but Professor Andrew N. Williams and his Northampton Team will surely do more and lead on it at the grassroots level for the specifics regarding Northampton aspirations. 

Things have moved on in the last 10 years with development growth, new rail-linked depots, DIRFT expansion, more people and goods demanding rail access and the legacy of past mistakes 'building new towns bolted onto old ones doubling size, but removing the rail links at one and the same time' for example.

Happy New Year btw. Pray it is a year of hope, realism and re-railing!

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

https://brtarail.com/b2n/

BRTA London-wide (M25 cordoned) Forum 31-01-2026

BRTA London-wide Forum will take place on Saturday, 31 January 2026 at the Barrel Vault, St.Pancras https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/london/the-barrel-vault-st-pancras at 2pm lunch and 3-5pm business.

Agenda:

1.  Appointment of a chair (not Simon)

2.  Apologies for absence

3.  Lower Thames River Crossing;

4.  Dudding Hill Line;

5.  Old Oak Common; Heathrow Southern & Western Railways; Docklands Light Railway;

6.  Chessington Line extension to Leatherhead/Epsom; Crossrail 2 (SW-NE);

7.  Croxley Link; 

8.   Muswell Hill Metro/Extend LU Lines;

9.   London Orbital Railways

10.              Light Rapid Transits (LRT/Trams) Networks should be allowed to grow organically via local including Central London and Docklands Extension via North Circular Reform to Brent Cross Railway Station.

11.              Any Other Business

12.              Day, Date, Time and Place of Next Meeting.

Note: The London Forum is to discuss things within M25 cordons, not outside generally. 12 items is enough per meeting.

Agenda for the BRTA London-wide Forum. All welcome on a first come, first served basis. It should generally stick to M25 cordons for defining London with the exception of Lower Thames Crossing and the Croxley Link. If you want to meet in a hall or other venue, make suggestions to Simon and be willing to join, offer to serve as a volunteer and help resource the cost of public meetings. If you agree with any of our calls, please email your local MP: https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons?sort=1

Please engage with this consultation!

Please engage with this consultation!

re: https://www.gmconsult.org/transport/transport2050/

Please refer to our Northern Page on our website for ideas to suggest studying, progressing and support for: https://brtarail.com/northern-england/

We at BRTA appreciate feedback. It seems the North gets very little/glacial in terms of reopenings currently. Much ado is made of Trans-Pennine Upgrades and Powerhouse High Speed agendas, but beyond that, LRT speculations and routine maintenance drummed up as 'investment' and 'renewals'; it is capacity and enabling more by rail for people and goods and filling missing links with new or reopened rails, Manchester and Sheffield, Leeds and Blackpool need more, better and diversity of rail services more. Orbitals for some conurbations like Manchester are needed. Please engage as individuals and organisations and let's get the North getting a fairer share to help move a comprehensive plan forward to 'within our lifetimes' not mere jam tomorrow!

Please remind friends/organisations that joining BRTA, working with BRTA and taking up BRTA's ideas, could also be advantageous and helps resource our endeavours.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

BRTA BRTA

http://donvalleyrailway.org/

Lower Thames Road Tunnel Concerns

re: https://transportactionnetwork.org.uk/opening-of-privatised-lower-thames-crossing-motorway-delayed-to-2034/

It is BRTA's view this should be a solely rail-based scheme arcing East Anglia/Norwich/Cambridge rail network with a link between Stansted and Colchester/Braintree as well to Kent/Canterbury and the Channel Tunnel and vice versa for passenger and freight. Unless the government picks up on this, it will be catastrophic for yet more congestion, emissions, delays, spiralling costs and land-take, which is a premium for multiple and sometimes conflicting demands of land-use and allocations.

BRTA would ask those who agree with us, to email their MP's and if one MP gets more than 5 such emails, they have to look into it apparently and maybe the government can start listening as well? https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons?sort=1

Likewise, the River Severn boasts 2 road bridges, but just one Victorian Tunnel for rail, when rail should be taking more and more traffic from roads, but lacks capability and capacity to do so. BRTA suggests a River Severn Rail Bridge (twin track) to enable more passenger and freight by rail and boost the environment, the economies of England and Wales and speed-up end-to-end timings?

Elsewhere in Scotland, a new Solway Rail Link and Viaduct would give a bypass to Carlisle for everything and on the Far North Line, a revisiting of the Dornoch Crossing, would give more flexibility tot hat lines operations and choices. 

The road lobby always includes extras in its lists of scheme, knowing some will always get through; rail just seems to stick with bare necessities and cascades down other candidates, which as the Borders Rail Project has shown, punches above their weight in exceeding all predicted usage in a mainly rural setting.

Yes, Cirecester's of this world and Ross-on-Wye and elsewhere need a national programme of local rail reopenings and a policy of switching to rail as much as possible, both policy direction and funding towards local rail solutions, reopenings and existing line capacity enhancements like needed at Northampton, Bedford and Leicester for example.

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

https://brtarail.com/events/ 

Press Release email on Universal Theme Park Gets Approval! Better radial rails also needed.

Updated Media Coverage 17-12-2025:

https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/rail-campaigners-say-bedfords-universal-theme-park-must-come-with-fit-for-purpose-rail-connections/

and

re: https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/universal-theme-park-chief-thanks-bedford-for-support-after-government-green-light/

The Government has given the Theme Park the go ahead. Now the real work begins. 2031 opening (?) and the main line railway station east side and the revamped East-West Rail Station at Kempston Hardwick (incorporating Stewartby?) on the northern flank - will Bedford-Oxford passenger services be running by then? 

BRTA is sad the East-West Rail project heralds the potential end of 4 halts (small stations) and the hourly shuttle passenger service. Moreover, will Ridgmont Station be moved to the west side of the M1 and what of access to or from it for the Heritage Centre which has announced closure of its coffee shop due to it being unviable? This, on the cusp of 8-million visitors projected to Universal Theme Park Bedfordshire?

BRTA is also concerned that Northampton is being disenfranchised from sharing the benefits of direct rail access to the Theme Park by Rail and that of a direct rail arcing to link Northampton to East-West Rail Northern Route or Bedford Thameslink slow line services at Bedford Midland, as designs do not factor the Northampton interest and beneficiary in. This must change, designs must include Northampton to and from all these exciting benefits and Northampton benefitting as well in terms of commuting, jobs and regeneration contributions to and from the town in terms of a new radial rail link between Bedford and Northampton with direct services between Bedford/Universal and Birmingham for example. 

This has not been very well thought through and BRTA calls for it to be from NOW, as this once in a generation coming together of the Universal Project and East-West Rail can inform if it is inclusive.

Richard Pill, CEO and BRTA Area Rep said "BRTA welcomes both these projects and the prospect of a 'fit for purpose' new Bedford Midland Railway Station able to deal with the volume of trains, tracks, passengers and freight they will court. Yes, we have not got the rail route we wanted east of Bedford which required far less-than any properties the Northern Rail Route may demand, but railway is a railway and this new Universal development will underscore the Bedford area as a dynamic area to visit, invest and respect of significance in the region.Getting choices to roads as a default is vital if emissions are to be kept down and gridlock avoided." 

End of Press Release.

BRTA will watch and interject as these things unfold. Stations North of Bedford should also be looked at to reduce the volume of traffic along the A6, create more parking capacity in North Bedfordshire nearer to where people live and cut overall journey times. A study should be invested in to explore the merit, benefit and make an appeal to the government in a growth context requiring adequate and joined-up infrastructure.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

BRTA CEO

01234 225068

https://brtarail.com/our-campaigns/

Surrey Rail Strategy 2021

 re: https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/land-planning-and-development/development/surrey-future/the-surrey-rail-strategy 

BRTA can email a copy of the said report dated 2021. It misses mention of Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham and our proposed Redhill Railway Reforms - email ceo@brtarail.com for copy. We welcome interest and support for our schemes and help both with taking them forward and offers for speakers to our voluntary public meetings (see: https://brtarail.com/events/) to help generate a snowball effect of push for them to be studied and the cases built up towards courting government support. Thank you.

I attach our thinking for Redhill Track Reform and request you kindly email your MP (https://members.parliament.uk/members/commons?sort=1) and other outlets like local media to give BRTA your support and consider joining or donating to help us do more and better. ceo@brtarail.com

Better Buses for Bedford and surrounds: a time to renationalise and for public inclusion!

 re: https://www.bedford.gov.uk/news/2025/bus-survey-2025-have-your-say-local-bus-services-bedford-borough

and https://www.gov.uk/government/news/better-buses-more-services-3-billion-boost-for-millions-of-passengers and https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/bedford-bus-boost-as-government-announces-additional-funding-for-local-transport/

We've had these kinds of consultations and announcements numerous times and what has happened is frequencies are scaled back and prices even at £3 plus cancellations, unreliability and a lack of buses linking with the main principal Bedford Midland Railway Station, shows a lack of coherence and join-up-ness to a service ethos and a business model which cannot stoop down to where people are at. I email as a layman and will also be sending out via my Bedford Area Rep role in BRTA to make others aware of both opportunities and challenges ahead.

My layman's observation is:

1. Stop outside Pizza Express/The Quarry in St Peters Street, timetable was updated, thank you, but a. would welcome exploration of 905 calling there and also that service to loop via Longsands St Neots to the principal railway station and back and b. also extend to link looping style with Cambridge Central Railway Station with through ticketing encouraged as 905 is a principal linking bus in the absence of any rail for 100 miles north of London on the east-west axis. If you can't see potential there including more footfall and spend for Bedford, something is lacking?

2. My observation is that Nos 5, 6, 10, 3 and 7 are fairly well used plus Kempston buses. However, frequency cut on 10/4 and 7 has blighted usership, waiting an hour out in dark winter months and cold or even in time-use value, is a big ask. Any investment should see these frequencies improved to a basic x2 buses per hour, merge routes should also be considered to speed end-to-end durations up, given the delays of congestion.

3. Gant Palmer 74, 44 fairly well used, 73 a vital link but more to bridge with the new Biggleswade-Cambridge bus service should be done, not isolation because operators and councils cannot talk with each other?

4. The Yew Tree at Pizza Express-The Quarry stop in St Peters Street Bedford, hangs over at 5'8 above the pavement and needs lopping back to align with the garden fence. It casts a shadow on the bus stop, the pavement, a hazard for pedestrians, cyclists and bus users. Likewise an audit on built bus stops should be done with a view to a. foster cleanliness, mending holes in roofs, clearing ivy, disinfecting floors (Olney is a disgrace for the latter) and b. maybe a competition to raise vigilance, standards and local pride?

5. Not all are digital, paper posted timetables do wonders as long as large enough font size and decent lighting are available during the winter months especially. RTI for the Kempston Stop in St Pauls (outwards stop) was vandalised several years ago and has never been replaced despite numerous different operators serving it.

6. I've said it before, the No. 8 via Queens Street goes the wrong way. It should go out via St Paul's and call at North Wing Hospital site, Old Folks Home in Park Avenue, the 'to town' stop Roff Avenue and loop to bus station via a new stop in Bromham Road (The New Ship In area), serve Bedford Midland and loop to bus station via Midland Road and Greyfriars for outwards to Great Denham. That, well publicised, would save walking across busy roads in Park Avenue and boost patronage. Gaps in service frequency, like Saturday (6th) no No. 8 looping for over 1 hour, is disconcerting, a lack of available staff or buses and no verbal communication make bus usage a lottery of reliability. That undermines confidence.

7. The sorts of people who use buses apart to commute, are old folks (free bus passes), young people (school etc), women and disabled people, but getting people out of cars to buses is a real challenge, but not a 'mission impossible' if we're willing to work at it without costing the earth. If price, frequency and going where people wish to get to/from and hours of service can be got right, the world is an oyster, no pun intended! Please lobby to extend a bus pass for all 18-Retirement ages and those on £21, 000 p.a or less to all on welfare benefits, to encourage patronage and maybe include off peak rail as well for inter-modal travel. Savings include less congestion, less waste of space, more usage, footfall and spend and raising the game on cutting emissions in a meaningful manner. Travel broadens the mind, affordability gives a leg-up to enable social mobility as well: https://post.parliament.uk/the-role-of-transport-in-improving-access-to-opportunities/