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.