Re. Covenanta Waste Disposal Site, Rookery Pit, Marston Vale, Bedfordshire: This is daft surely as the first pre-planning consideration and stipulation should be that all fuel and waste and liquids are brought in by rail and taken out by rail? The Marston Vale Railway runs alongside Rookery Pit and laying a siding on a slow line off main lines would not be too much of a deal for something with a 20 year life-span. If not, what you get is regional influxes of wastes and fuels by lorry and exacting amounts out by lorry adding to congestion and carnage on the A421 and associated radial roads including cross-country roads. I think this failure to include and make a case for rail is a fundamental weakness of both the Metagg Campaign and Planning Authorities powers/use there of or regional LEP intervention as to the 'basis of operations going forward'. It is a carry on as has been before with or without a railway, which assumes road as a mainstay, when we should be looking at modal shift. Things like aggregates would be able to go by water if the canal used the extended navigation along the river Great Ouse course to link with Wolverton via Clapham, Pavenham, new tunnel coming out near Carlton/Chellington to turn towards Turvey, Olney and Wolverton where it would meet the Grand Union Canal. Instead the Canal Campaigners want to have a hoist up brogborough hill, which would be sufficient for boats, but not tonnages of freight except lighter stuff like recycling plastic for example. In any case non time critical may rule water out contrast the fact the railway is there and has capacity. From East-West Rail to Northampton-Bedford-Cambridge and more, the question is asked "who'se going to pay for it?" but the same question can be asked "who'se paying for the absence of it now going forward?" My belief, backed up by independent studies hitherto is to suggest the transfer to rail based operations for projects like this Covenanta episode would bring savings to the environment, road wear and tear, accidents and much more.
On another track, I am told by a colleague that the No. 40 bus service between Bedford and Milton Keynes via Bromham, A422 and Newport Pagnell is being withdrawn, hence the wish to divert the No. 41 Bedford-Northampton bus via the village loop roads and deny Bedford Road, Bromham of a bus service? I have suggested that a Grant Palmer Village loop could serve Bromham-Bedford - a mainstay of both buses and/or a No 11 recently started could do Biddenham, Bromham, Great Denham and back via Queen's Park/Bromham Road/Railway Station loop.
The No. 40 was scantily used between Bromham and Milton Keynes, although students used it to get to Bedford from Newport Pagnell - a town in it's own right. One suggestion was that it could have gone from Chichley to loop Olney before heading south to Sherrington and Newport Pagnell, cut out the Coachway (X5 serves it) and allow bus passes before 09.30 am to use it and usher day trippers to it rather than the X5 which commuters need and often leaves people behind on the am Bedford-Milton Keynes leg due to demand and capacity issues. Common interface between No. 40 and X5 could have been to reinstate the stop for X5 (request) at Chichley - which is where the Royal Society has a base. UNO C10 does Newport Pagnell and Crawley to Cranfield, it could do the Sherrington-Chichley-Crawley leg possibly to compensate if the No. 40 is withdrawn. Poor old Astwood of course. The No. 41 could then cut out Olney and provide a speeded up end to end service, but people at Yardley Hastings want a bus link to Olney as their nearest town. Maybe a very few, but one possibility could be for the 21 from Milton Keynes to arc from Lavendon-new stop Warrington Roundabout (development potential and interchange with any reinstated Milton Keynes-Olney-Wellingborough A509 bus link?) - turn at Yardley-Olney and back to MK Central.
Clearly coordination seems to be lack lustre, inclusivity like telling us and engaging with us as a representative group of 30 people would be nice from our Local Councils, let alone the media. Alas, we are tryers who seek to advocate an inclusive and coordinated transport system. Can't please everyone, but these cuts and revisions will surely displease and disenfranchise swathes of our society the old, the young, the frail, men and women. There's been a push to put society on a scientific basis and science has given values of cliniciality, reductionism, seeing people as pieces of meat, statistics and commodity value objects, than humanity and Biblical Creationism which sees all creation and every human being as made in God's image, as of eternal worth and significance and worthy of equality and consideration. As Susan Jeffers in her book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway says these differential values are not static but rather people and societies move between the polemics and it is the point of transition which informs the average. John Bunyan of Bedford was imprisoned for 12 years for preaching without a license and sadly, the law is progressively criminalizing communications like this today. Our website: https://ertarail.com/
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