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/
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment