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