Bedford-Cambridge Railway announcement

A Bedford-Cambridge Rail Route is chosen and announced!

Bedford-Cambridge route has been approved and await the fine detail of principally:

a. Will there be a physical rail connection with the East Coast Main Line (ECML) to enable Peterborough, Stevenage, East Bedfordshire and Thameslink integration with same east-west tracks and vice versa?

b. What about freight – will the new railway be fully conversant from day one?

c. Will you now consider electrification throughout?

d. Will you include Northampton-Midland Main Line/Bedford-Cambridge in the frame?

On the one hand we're disappointed that it will not use the old trackbed east of Bedford via St John's and may now not serve Sandy/East Bedfordshire linkage with County Town. It will be a great way around and cost avarice sums. On the other hand, a railway is better than none and we welcome progression to the next stages. For readers around what is happening with and associated concerns and agendas, please see our Blogspot and scroll down: https://ertarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/ We are reliably told by a colleague, that Shepreth Junction with be with a flyover or grade separated junction and 4 tracking between it and Cambridge to accommodate more railways and trains is the good news! For further news please see: https://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/ There will also be a new station ‘Cambridge South’ alias Addenbrookes!

We also need to look at a link across the top of the Midland Main Line to incorporate Northampton - Cambridge into the new route. 

Addendum: I am reliably told by a colleague, that Shepreth Junction with be with a flyover or grade separated and 4 tracking between it and #Cambridge to accommodate more railways and trains = the good news! Meanwhile #ertarail still wants the old formation restored from west of M11 to Trumpington Junction and links with new Cambridge South Station which will be 4 tracks and yes, Guided Busway must go. https://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/

Harrogate-Northallerton via Ripon makes the news

Harrogate-Northallerton via Ripon makes the news

#ertarail

We can rightly take some kudos for putting this reopening back on the agenda and indeed are working at lobbying for a nationwide re-railing.

Essential reading ahead of the ERTA June B&B jaunt (holding forums and leafleting 3 key areas of Harrogate, Ripon and Northallerton) to the areas, please formalise your Northern Team and have a thorough read, so you are fully briefed. A61 modal choice/congestion broker = the rail option. Where there's a will, there can be a way. What if we carry on as we are and don't go for the rail? Consequences across x many similar schemes is dire medium term. Please let Simon know if interested and plan dates, could be a long weekend like a Friday to a Monday?

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage/this-is-how-re-opening-the-harrogate-northallerton-line-could-link-10-cities-to-leeds-bradford-airport-1-10227862?fbclid=IwAR06CtGZk1HNTHyORIDnV7kkA7EDzDZWImDesh9NTjQKGvG29WJfZxB1yR4  

Contact Mr Simon Barber T. 0208 940 4399, E. simon4barber@gmail.com

BTW, we have started getting bookings for our conference. Form and poster via our website page. Please book at your earliest convenience and help spread the word. We also have our stall at St Paul's, Central Bedford, this Saturday, details via the website: https://www.ertarail.com/events and https://www.ertarail.com/conference-2020

Cambridge, the future is in all our hands - please don't scupper it!

Cambridge, the future is in all our hands - please don't scupper it!

The English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a voluntary association seeking to move the agenda towards better public transport. Founded in 2013, our predecessor was the Bedfordshire Railway and Transport Association (BRTA). It called and campaigned within its means for a restored Bedford-Sandy-Cambridge rail link, part of a wider campaign for a full Oxford-Cambridge re-railing project. All along, since 1995 there have been professional bodies like the East-West Rail Consortium and amateur campaigners calling for the route to be rebuilt in some shape or other for rail purposes. Indeed within the last 20 years we have argued with local councils in the Cambridge area, to protect the former route, sadly instead we have seen Trumpington Meadows development with a school and playing field on the old rail route and Guided Busway on the route from Trumpington Park and Ride. We argued against doing this and now the consequences are you have tougher choices to make. To be sure, we are not against development per se, but believe strongly in the need to protect strategic arteries and keep options open for transport corridors to serve growing sprawl and make it more sustainable. Alas beit political or other pressures, the pragmatic fall of what is happening on the ground means the following:

The new Bedford-Cambridge so called 'Central Section' of Oxford-Cambridge Rail Link dubbed 'East-West Rail Link' will either have to come via the old route with relocation of enough width for access at Trumpington Meadows Development, a new single track and platform could be built at the Trumpington park and Ride for integration, slew the Guided Busway to run via Long Road to and from Addenbrookes - still gives public transport choice - and re-railing a. to link with the proposed new station 'Cambridge South' alias 'Addenbrookes' b. to restore the trackbed now guided busway to enable 4 tracking into Cambridge and restore the Trumpington Junction for early segregation and more capacity off the existing twin track London lines. This is what we want, this is our vision. You could quadruple tracks north of Shepreth Junction and enable a combination of train usage. The new station should be scoped, shaped and adapted to cater for this. Instead we feel it is being pursued as an isolated project and aforethought for how East-West Rail will fit in is being relegated to the doldrums for another day. The reality is the pressure on land use, development and lack of joined-up-ness in transport means the windows of opportunity are being eroded and diminishing. The consequence is that the railway will have to join the existing Hitchin-Royston-Cambridge rail link somewhere and that in turn will restrict the east-west rail operations and overload Shepreth Junction with 3 busy railways on a flat junction with just 2 tracks for it all to get to and from Cambridge main station, let alone onward passenger and long freight trains to Newmarket and beyond. It does not appear at ground level much thought or set aside has been given and Cambridge North blocks the old Chesterton Junction access with a road, Guided Busway and cycle sheds and would be a segregated platform were rails ever restored off of the main line to St Ives or anywhere else.

So given these dilemmas, our call is for the old route to be rebuilt with realignments where blockages exist. It may be challenging, but seems to us, the lesser of two evils. The east-west rail must be built and enabled to inform inter-regional passenger and freight operations to inform mass modal shift. Container ships will be landing at Felixstowe docks with 18, 000 containers per ship and need more direct rail radial links to take it all to the rest of the country, as route into, across and out of London and indeed between Ely and Peterborough, thanks to the lock-in of blockages on the old March-Spalding railway prohibiting reopening without a top-down Government backed solution, means a lot of passenger and freight is working between Ely and Peterborough on a twin track access further afield.

Here is the link for the Cambridge South Consultations: 

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/anglia/cambridge-south-station/?fbclid=IwAR3O_4vEH7USXnVEEcVabp4dgMYWxSevYD8nDvGBe8vdDQ-TAJ0hx0KxHkU   But we would call on you to demand that the east-west rail and possible reopening to Haverhill is taken into consideration and the remaining lands used to plan and accommodate and integrate, not shut out re-railing as a main option. The Network Rail page is :  https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/anglia/cambridge-south-station/  We must have integral thinking, planning and curtailed tailoring of development to keep access routes open and available. Haverhill re-railing could be useful for Cambridge-Colchester access and movements and would enable Ipswich-Cambridge via the southern route. It may be possible to have a flying junction at Shepreth if land allows and via a flyover cross the Bishops Stortford link and share the 2 extra tracks which could be done with East - West Rail.

I attach a copy of my paper submitted to the English Economic Heartlands organisation, an earlier diagram of how we envisage Addenbrookes alias Cambridge South Station could be designed for integration, amendment for 2 tracks from the south in addition to what is there would need to be looked at. Time is running out. Cambridge stands to gain sustainable footfall and spend sustaining its city centre more with these radial rail links. It should be looking at LRT (Trams) linking the City Centre with the rail link. Park and Ride Bus Links have made a contribution at cost, but the spare capacity created has been back-filled with growth and volume making congestion compounded and guess what, buses get stuck and delayed in road congestion. No, we need re-railing and segregated public transport links. Stations at Cherry Hinton and Fulbourn should also be looked at for commuting purposes. 

My colleague Mr Simon Barber is more-than willing to meet to discuss and explore further.

Finally, we are holding our annual conference on 25th April and you are welcome to pre-book and come. Please do feel free to pass on to any interested persons. This could be our last chance to get the east-west rail access right, default is less-than ideal and these patterns cascade along the rebuild section and we are engaging to try and usher a joined-up railway, not fragments. 

Re-rail the Great Central - Help Connectivity

Historical root of what we face today is that post-war the closures of local railways were implemented and crippled rails ability to compete and Government deliberate investment in roads including the opening of the M1 and its extension set us on a roads reliant society, culture, transport and logistics lifestyle dependency. Now these policies are coming home to roost.

1. Congestion, hinders and wastes time, adds to costs

2. Fossil fuelled engines emit harmful pollutants which harm people and communities

3. More roads heap volumes of traffic to urban areas which lack the land capacity to cater for it all either on road space or critically, the demand for ever more land use for parking.

4. Town centres are taking a hard knock as out of town proliferates as well as on-line shopping and only better public transport links can deliver the volumes of people minus the vehicles which in turn lures people to sustain town centres.

The English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a voluntary membership based association seeking to move the agendas towards better public transport. We have a concern that the proposed HS2 scheme at great cost, will not provide stations for key places it passes like Calvert (new town proposed), Brackley and Southam and leaves Daventry off its radar too. From Old Oak Common (OCC) to Solihull, is about 80 miles with the brownfield creation for development of a railway, but no stations allowing access to it, which is problematic to say the least! HS2 will not cater for freight and whilst granted it may serve Birmingham, does not address that parts of the M1 regularly clog up to a stand still and given growth without remedy/choice, will get worse before it gets better. Putting it another way, if traffic crawls along at an average of 25 mph, you don't need 225 mph to be competitive!

Our call is to rebuild the old Great Central between Calvert (with a new link to the Oxford line) to Narborough linking existing Nuneaton-Leicester lines. Passenger services between Heathrow, Aylesbury, Oxford and beyond could access Leicester whilst new freight by rail from places like Bristol and Southampton could utilise the Knighton-Burton line for Derby and diaspora from there for example and East Midlands to these other place. Most of the old trackbed is still there, but realignments and new builds will be necessary where encroachments have occurred, hence our call for local councils and other organisations to work together to protect the remaining formation, even as a walk-way cum cycle-way as has happened in some places. We must keep re-railing as an option open and commit to sourcing funding to study with a view to overcome problems and re-rail as an investment in our areas, not be bogged down by mooted or actual problems and lose the vision for what we may want to achieve and rectify a great injustice inflicted on our communities.

We laud the proposal to rebuild the Northampton-Market Harborough line and wish that project well. But that is on the eastern flank of the M1, Great Central comes in on the western flank. Currently everything is planned around Birmingham/West Midlands, but without the orbital rails, it cannot cope with more traffic on the rails without capacity and we raise the question, does HS2 properly deliver the right sort of capacity? Likewise depots arise within an orbit of the centre of focus (Birmingham/West Midlands) with more road traffic pounding our roads - no we need East Midlands to be included not at Toton or Sheffield as HS2 purports, but Great Central into Leicester Midland by the aforementioned routes. 

We lack the resources to commission studies or expertise to put business cases together, but respect and would collaborate with any interested parties who may be so inclined.

I attach a map and our report outlining ideas mainly. We welcome your interest and support. Lutterworth must be re-railed, M1 must be given parallel rail links. Rugby is a problematic issue, but maybe a new build could link into Rugby and West Coast Main Line via a new build serving Willoughby and Barby criss-crossing the canal corridor and link where the Northampton Loop Line and WCML meet south of Rugby by a new designed junction? Likewise with viaducts, you could go via the old route too and with realignments and modest compulsory purchases and relocations, re-rail Rugby to link with the GC where they used to intersect and have a new chord for that purpose? Currently there is little capacity on the WCML, no Southampton trains can get direct to the East Midlands, they are directed to Birmingham or elsewhere but that then focuses and concentrates lorry movements to a hub rather than share and redistribute around West and East Midlands respectively. In short you get all the traffic, few of the rail infrastructure gains. We believe this pattern is unsustainable and our Great Central call, is the best way to rectify it. 

My colleague Mr Simon Barber is more than willing to meet and work with any who may support what we advocate. Our Rugby Forum is also open to all:

ERTA Rugby Forum Agenda: Rugby Forum – Saturday 8 February, 2:00pm – Food and Social; 3:00 – 5:00pm – Business, The Rupert Brooke, 8-10 Castle Street, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 2TP If interested contact Mr Simon Barber T. 0208 940 4399, E. simon4barber@gmail.com

1. Chairman’s Welcome

2. Apologies for Absence

3. Appointment of a Minute Taker

4. Previous Minutes and Matters Arising

5. The ERTA GC Scheme: Calvert-Rugby-Lutterworth-Narborough

6. The need for route protection and studies to make the case and solve conundrums like Rugby and West Coast Links etc.

7. Narborough-Rugby problems and solutions

8. Rugby – Calvert issues and how they can be overcome

9. Appointment of Area Reps

10. HS2 Status and impact, not compatible unless toned down, takes old GC route until Brackley, but no station provision to access it. A conventional railway using GC corridor could.

11. How to get local, regional and national players on board: industry, councils, professionals

12. How to grow the team/ideas and solutions/offers

13. Any Other Business

14. Date, Time and Place of Next Meeting (Autumn 2020)

Some diagrams of more of what ERTA would like to see re-railed

Join ERTA and get involved or join our email loop for updates: https://www.ertarail.com/ and richard.erta@gmail.com

Making a to b by rail joined-up more

The English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) is a voluntary association seeking to move things towards better public transport. 

We are committed to all the regions across England and in terms of rail as a greener, cleaner mode of transport, we note Scotland and Wales have forged ahead and England is lagging behind. 

What we wish for for London, to be studied further can be found on our Blogspot: https://ertarailvolunteer.blogspot.com/ just scroll down to 'London Calling'. 

But main themes are as attached to this email on our London flyer. Currently there is no east-west rail link for 100 miles north of the North London Line. This means that all east-west movements (passenger and freight) must go by road and the lack of choice has fuelled demand for road expansion, but this heaps congestion up to urban areas which lack the sheer capacity to handle it all, let alone provide premium land for parking when demands for employment and housing abound.

We do need orbital rail links between the Channel Tunnel/Tonbridge and the radial lines north and west of London and these orbitals east and west M25 corridors of London. Likewise, the proposed east-west rail between Oxford-Milton Keynes-Bedford-Cambridge must be made fit for purpose from day one, is long overdue and must be designed to link radial north-south lines and carry freight as well as intense passenger workings. 

Concerns are also that whilst we do need more capacity and lines to the West and East Midlands and London, HS2 may not be the right type of railway to deliver what is required, capacity not speed per se. As, if the M1 for example crawls along at 25mph on average speed, why do you need 225 mph to beat it? So costs could come down if we go for capacity rather than just speed, a 125 mph cap on speed is fast enough. Likewise a railway which only deals with passenger trains, and leaves freight to existing lines fails to see we need to cater for both. If we are to take a climate emergency seriously, modal shift will means a need for more by rail, not less or just 'business as usual'. London needs more capacity on its rails for more London bound passenger and freight workings and capacity. It needs lands for depots and handling more freight by rail. Other concerns are, if the projected figures for HS2 are true, discharging at Euston will require additional tube and overground rail based capacity to cater for all the extra numbers. We must look at surface Light Rapid Transits (LRT) (in old money trams); for Central and West London areas as well as extension of the Docklands via the North London Circular to link East London with Cricklewood via Brent Cross. There should be few caps, rather encouragement to expand as demand and supply enables. At Old Oak Common in West London, the lack of HS2 running into Heathrow and onto the Channel Tunnel and the failure of Crossrail to be consistent Continental Loading Guage restricts joined-up-travel. People don't like changing and may cause crowding of Crossrail at the western end if the projected numbers use HS2. Other options are HS1/Stratford-Stansted-West Cambridge (M11 corridor)-A14 to Lutterworth-M6/M1 corridors to serve West and East Midlands in a seamless, consistent railway and could accommodate a link from Felixstowe in the east as well. We do need reopenings, rebuilds and select new builds, and on the London patch, we see the need for more cross-Thames rail based solutions not roads and a new link between Pitsea and Rayleigh could enable a joined up Woolwich-Southend Airport corridor by rail intercepting several trunk roads for Park and Ride access and avoid the need to travel into and out of central London with changes.

Building the current Stansted Rail Link onwards to link with the Braintree Branch, would inform a loop out of Liverpool Street-Stansted-Chelmsford-Stratford-London Liverpool Street. It would open up all sorts of connectivities and again challenge road based presumption in accessing a number of places. A new Park and Ride Rail Station along the A120 at Great Dunmow could also be installed if lands are not developed over without proper planning to keep options open. It is good to talk and worth together for the common interest or as John Donne said "no man is an island" and this can be the case in locations too. 

Likewise if the North Downs Line is electrified, you could run a semi-fast Thameslink Train from Central London to Guildford and possibly extended to Reading, saving the hassle of changing at St Pancras for the Northern Line to Waterloo, again freeing up seats. These things need studying but enables people to get around more and less changing and less gaps for fuelling demand for more road travel. 

I hope these ideas can be looked at and supported.

Cambridge Windows for More By Rail - plan to keep options open, not diminish them!

Dear Colleagues,

Please ask - where and how east-west rail's central section will integrate with the new station - see map - the old Bedford-Cambridge route can be seen to the left now Guided Busway which must go by road to Addenbrookes!

The point being the east-west rail could integrate with this station as well as having the old trackbed back for segregational capacity creation south of Cambridge which needs land for more tracks for approraches to the Cambridge main station anyway, given the desire to run more trains including some freight?

Please try and get along and take some flyers.

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/anglia/cambridge-south-station/?fbclid=IwAR3O_4vEH7USXnVEEcVabp4dgMYWxSevYD8nDvGBe8vdDQ-TAJ0hx0KxHkU  

I attach a copy of my paper. I have an insight on how to tackle Blunham and Sandy access - but does depend on whether Bedford Borough Council/Mayor Dave Hodgson wants the railway from the east to enter Bedford via St John's and link with Bedford Midland, reverse to extra baying capacity and out again for Oxford? Contrast more circuitous and expensive options. Only willing to share my insight if invited to a meeting, where views are able to be openly expressed by either the Consortium, the Company or Bedford Borough Council or similar and that in private.

See diagram for a clue of what we would prefer at design stage. Proper rail optional integration, not one north-south station and develop land to block out the rest and by default overload Shepreth Junction!

The consultation is 'open to all'. Please spread the word.

Key to remember is that getting this and east-west right now, affects us all pro and anti and so what is happening here at Cambridge has a knock on effect rippling across the arc to Oxford and vice versa, ditto Bedford, ditto Milton Keynes. 

Likewise, if we want to free up more capacity into, across and out of London or indeed between Ely and Peterborough, we must have a robust railway able to take a lion's share of passenger and freight, not just passenger. Until it is built and made robust, over-demand for what is available is locked-in. 

Yours sincerely,

Richard Pill

ERTA Chairman

richard.erta@gmail.com

ERTA London Calling!

Not exhaustive, but some ideas which we would hope would be worked up and promoted where appropriate:

London Wish List 2020

Gospel Oak-Barking line (GOB) services integrated more with existing London services and

lines, with better interchanges at stations along the existing route?

-That GOB network should extend eastwards to Barking Riverside and Abbey Wood via a Thames Tunnel.

-That GOB network should extend eastwards to West Hampstead -Dudding Hill – Acton – Kew Bridge -Heathrow

Thames Tunnel Grays – Dartford (Lower Thames River Crossing scheme), built to HS1 standards, to include Crossrail 1 extension and cater for freight between ports and Channel Tunnel.

New rail link Southend Airport – Rayleigh/Pitsea parallel to A13, A130, A1245

Light Rapid Transits should be allowed to grow organically via local planning systems in North/South    /East/West/Central London e.g.  Croydon Tram link - extend to Crystal Palace and Lloyd Park curve eliminated (site of accident Autumn 2016)

LU -  a) Re-open Bank-Aldwych (closed for sake of new lifts!) and old Fleet Line to Charing     Cross

      b) Extend LU lines -  Edgware – Stanmore-Watford

Mill Hill East-Edgware

Epping – M11 Park & Ride

      c)modern signalling systems

                d)cooling the Tube network (especially in summer) where feasible and affordable

e) up-grade on the District Line (with population increase crowding is set to increase on that line from Richmond in next 25 years; that line is also notoriously crowded in peak-hours between Earls Court and Westminster),

      f) new air-conditioned trains which are energy-efficient with regenerative breaking

7.    New station on London Overground North London Line at North Acton (interchange with LT   Central Line and possibly Crossrail 1, adjacent Chiltern and First Great Western Services).

 New station on London Overground West London Line at Battersea

      9.       More disabled access for both LT and National Rail stations, particularly on London    Overground and LU stations.

 Chessington Line extension to Leatherhead including station for Chessington World of Adventures

Crossrail 1 to Windsor & Eton Central

Heathrow Southern Railway (short tunnel from Terminal 5 and then a mainly surface route parallel with the M25 to new junction with the Windsor-Staines line. HSR will then continue alongside the M25 to new junction with the Virginia Water–Weybridge/ Byfleet Junction line north of Chertsey. Could also incorporate old West Drayton - Staines West branch and be linked into reopening old Great Central mail line in the longer term.

New platforms Willesden Junction Low Level for London Midland and Southern services, thereby enabling interchange with North London Line, West London Line and LT Bakerloo Line.

North Downs Line    a) Double-track Frimley Green – Ash Vale

b) Improved pedestrian access between Dorking West/Dorking Deepdene
c. Elecrify North Downs Line.

Extend Docklands Light Railway Bank – site of old Broad Street station(underground)

Restoring through services to Bromley North from London Bridge/Charing Cross etc.

West Hampstead - new platforms for Chiltern Line services and possibly Metropolitan Line, thereby enabling interchange with North London Line, Thameslink and Jubilee Lines

Crossrail 2 [SW-NE]

Better integration of London's suburban rail with TfL bus, tube and tram services, including new and improved interchanges with these services

All London's suburban rail services must be devolved to TfL (London Overground) as soon as possible

Sites close to railway lines offering potential locations for rail freight terminals and logistics centres must be protected from alternative transport proposals these include disused railways and rail sidings.

Alternatives by rail to HS2/HS3

What we want is: a. Woodhead new built with new bore tunnel, b. Peak Rail, c. Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton, d. Skipton-Colne e. Keswick re-railed and f. Great Central rebuild/new build from Calvert-Narborough with access from the south (Aylesbury, Oxford, Old Oak Common, Heathrow, Southampton and Bristol) to Leicester for East Midlands and beyond dissemination and via Knighton-Burton spare capcity to Derby for wider dissemination and vice versa. 

This capacity creation would go a long way to connect and re-connect and offer capacity at less cost the High Speed designs. I'm open to see the map of what you propose and whether it would accommodate passenger and more freight by rail and not merely create defaultive capacity (HS2 claim). 

A connection from MML north of Luton (Toddington service station area) - M1 calls at MK West/Coachway/Cranfield links- cross country enter Northampton via the old Bedford-Northampton link serving Brackmills Industrial Business Park, University of Northampton Waterside Campus (new), Delapre Abbey Centre, South Northampton and connects with WCML / loop and proposed and at study stage Northampton-Market Harborough line and DIRFT for example. You could focus on Leicester-Nuneaton via Narborough and parallel M1 with diverse links to Rugby, GC for Calvert and if necessary M1 Watford Gap-wherever in the London area you have in mind. 

I would suggest look at incrementalism and working with local lines and infill select new pieces first and then whole hog if necessary? Happy to entertain and discuss in the round further, principally via email richard.erta@gmail.com and my Vice Chairman and associated do the face-2-face meetings more often than not. 

I dislike the adversarial and aggressive approach of HS2 or bust stances, and wish for a more inclusive, broadened and concilliatory tone which carries more with us. For example, our Great Central scheme would propose a station at Brackley and between Southam and Daventry, none of which HS offers whilst all the design and intrusion of a railway they cannot use. #ertarail

Getting more freight off roads and onto rails in the East Midlands

For 20 years we called for a rail-road depot for Elstow Storage Depot off the MML south of Bedford/off the A6. Alas, we were ignored by tiers of government and now we have Wixams with proliferated depots and loads of lorry movements and no rail access, so dysfunction is locked-in. Likewise Brackmills Industrial Park, Northampton - which could be rebuilt if those regional distributor companies clubbed together and led from the front. Sadly they are waiting for others to blink first/brinkmanship (?) and in track laying roles there is NR and not much else unless third party funding is available. Where rails exist companies can spruce up green credentials by having a rail access, but reaching out to take rail movements off through tracks demands some vision, cost and initiative. Thus, Northampton Rail freight depot is a link off the through tracks and could be a problem operationally as these tracks through Northampton are extremely busy with passenger and freight.

Hinkley has rail access from Felixstowe-Leicester and Liverpool-Nuneaton. BUT, no north-south access which avoids London to places like Bristol and Southampton for example. Oxford-Milton Keynes reopening (2024?) still has the issue of capacity on the West Coast Line whilst A34/A43/A14 and associated roads are bunged up/subject to delays and that is cost. This is where our Great Central Plan comes into its own, as if a spur were built off Narborough (Leicester-Nuneaton) and new build back to Rugby / WCML that in itself would offer M1 parallel on north-south axis but WCML is at capacity (selling point seized on by HS2 as an answer even as it won't cater for much freight if at all/relies on predicted defaultive capacity creation, which in my humble view is over-egged!). Great Central south of Rugby to Calvert enables passenger links from East Midlands to Aylesbury/Oxford, Old Oak Common/Crossrail/Heathrow and freight off existing lines and road to East Midlands from Southampton/Bristol to Leicester and yonder and/or via the Burton Line to Derby and yonder (avoiding excess paths being taken up through Leicester). 

So I feel GC needs to be studied again, councils need to come together, pool resources with quangos like English Economic Heartlands and see how vital a role a GC revival south of Narborough could be for game changing the current set of dynamics we face. Orbitals of Birmingham are few and far between, but with Peak Rail (interest exists) access to Manchester/capacity for passenger and freight can be had and dissemination thereof.

Hope of interest. Any industrial development linked to rail with actual rail a lion's share is better than none at all, but Government could be asked to mandate it and set a percentage of rail business modal shift from day one, so we avoid speculative greening and proliferation of lorries. Midlands Connect sadly promote roads it seems, but that is short sighted, if they could buy into these rail projects, it could be a game changer.

English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) 2020 Vision

02-01-2020

Press Release

English Regional Transport Association (ERTA) 2020 Vision

We want to see the Government commit to a rolling programme of rail rebuilds and reopenings across the English Regions. So much has been poured into HS2 and HS3 when so much elsewhere cries out for working up, starting up and delivery cost funding to be made available. We need a level playing field within rail and between rail and road expenditure and ease of accessing capital funding for projects for example.

In the south we have things like electrification of lines like Ashford-Hastings, North Downs Line and Bedford-Bletchley as infills. Ashford-Hastings would enable through services via Ashford onto Brighton and with a new Polegate-Stone Cross, more frequency and faster could offer competition to road building demand and costs. Likewise, the North Downs Line could enable Thameslink to run semi-fast into Guildford and possibly Reading from Redhill and Bedford – Bletchley could enable more through workings between the West Coast Main Line and the Midland Main Line making more of its strategic significance.

In the north we want Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton, Woodhead, Peak Rail and select others to get a higher priority for investment and rebuilding. Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton, as well as taking on the A61 and enabling growing populations along the corridors better commuting by rail access, would also help to declutter York and shave 40 minutes off through transit times between South Yorkshire/Midland Main Line and Newcastle and Scotland via the East Coast Main Line. Woodhead would cater for passenger and freight between Hull and Liverpool and all in between. Peak Rail would link North West with East Midlands, populations, commuting, airports as well as principal main lines and offer environmentally friendly rail access to the south Peak area.

As a voluntary association, we rely on public and professional interest and generosity and welcome to grow our membership to enable us to campaign more to foster these and other schemes towards ultimate delivery. Our forums, conferences, leafleting and growing email network offer opportunities to engage.

End Press Release

Further comment, please contact Mr Richard Pill 01234 330090 / richard.erta@gmail.com