This plan review is upon us. I attach our input of ideas for the sweep of way forward. If the Borough can listen and work with us that is much preferred. If it can't for whatever reason, then the consequences will be less-than what we wish for and locks-in the congestion, parking issues and associated exhaust emissions of long standing traffic with no where to go. Please give support where you think you can. Another call is to make Grant Palmer Buses serve the railway station as part of their overall routes as well as the main bus station. It may encourage more day time off peak Stagecoach participation on the back of it. Thank you.
ERTA Chairman.
East-West Rail Central section – a
consideration
1. The Bedford St John’s site:
A housing development threatens to block this site and portal access to the
rail corridor to the east of Bedford down to Cardington Road, Bedford.
a. ERTA is not against social housing
but believes this site and rail option being retained in this case outweighs
the other pressure to deliver more urban housing.
b. ERTA believes the Borough needs to
look elsewhere to locate social housing and improve facilities to conjoin with
it.
c. The St John’s site would be poorly
road accessed and cul-de-sacked in all probability.
d. The land needs to be protected
either by interim rail use like a washer plant or a park amenity area with a
cycleway down to Cardington Road, utilising the corridor meaningfully until a
railway is re-laid.
e. If we block the site, it means
trains cannot access it from the west (Bletchley direction) or north-east (from
Bedford Midland direction). That locks in the current mooted East-West Rail
Companies (EWRC) Northern Route, which in our view is unsatisfactory.
2. The Northern Route. This route
rightly facilitates the running through Bedford Midland clearing platforms for
other services in an intensively used railway station but is problematic
because:
a. No provision on A4280 Road Bridge
for extra tracks to join the slows from north or south.
b. mooted fields for the junction
south of the Western Bypass Link Road have been built on and so that means
junctioning north of the Girder Bridge.
c. North of Girder Bridge conflicts
with that same land for a Northampton-Bedford rail link flyover from the slows
over the main lines going west.
d. North of Girder Bridge has less
than 10 metres to go to a height to clear juggernaut lorry height to cross the
A6 Clapham Bypass, cross flood plains to cross the River Great Ouse and old
Clapham Road before hitting a hillside.
e. Tunnelling or cuttings from where
to where as it is hilly and extra hills around North Brickhill, Cleat Hill,
Ravensden plateauing to Wilden, avoiding built Renhold to Colesden.
f. From Colesden area, avoiding Great
Barford, you have to engage with A421, A1, Black Cat Roundabout
reconfiguration, River Great Ouse/Ivel conjoined ascending to the Tempsford
flood plain to intersect the ECML from a north-westerly direction to head off
easterly, the exact formation lineage to yet be determined.
3. The alternative Southern Route:
a. From an automatic points reinstated
triangle and double-track railway, you head off to Cardington Road on the flat.
b. Cardington Road needs the road
bridging the railway and could be made single carriageway as a part of a
traffic calming exercise. Level Crossings are controversial and difficult to
secure, even though such would be visually less intrusive and cheaper in all
probability.
c. From Cardington Road, you head
eastwards on a straight flat trajectory. 3 old railway bridges would need
replacing with double-track specification bridges. The Sustrans Cycle Route
would need redirecting either alongside on new embankment or re-routed via
Barker’s Lane for example to Goldington Road and Castle Mill for example.
d. A level crossing would be required
for Priory Park entrance or a new bridge link to the roundabout north side of
current Barker’s Lane if flood barriers were erected/metal girders put in to
direct river flood overflow.
e. You then head on flat land directly
eastwards and the A421 Bypass needs to be raised with a bridge over the old
railway formation to double track specification and accommodating a cycle-cum-footpath/equestrian
access. This was raised in the 1993 Side Roads Order 199 whereby the Department
of Transport said were the railway pursued they would give sympathetic
consideration to accommodating rail access. This clause should be evoked and
worked on to the aforementioned specification.
f. From east of the bypass the railway
leaves the old formation at an angle to go through Willington Woods (largely a
gutted quarry) to cross the River Great Ouse and bypass-built Willington. It
would then cross back the other side of Willington and curve round to go under
the Willington-Great Barford Road and continue erring to the left to align and
bridge the Great Barford-Blunham Road. From here, on embankment to avoid River
Great Ouse flooding, to continue to north of built Blunham to access the
Tempsford flood plains from the south-westerly direction.
g. Crossing the A1 and River Great
Ouse/Ivel on embankment you ascend the plains north of Station Road Tempsford.
h. Our preference would be a multi-aspecting
flying junction interceptor with the slows of the ECML rather than another
station. This would enable passenger and freight integrations from:
- Peterborough/all south including St
Neots-Bedford/Oxford corridor and vice versa
- Stevenage/Thameslink/East
Bedfordshire direct access to County Town of Bedford and the Oxford Corridor
and vice versa.
- Peterborough/St Neots – Cambridge
via Cambourne direct including access to/from Addenbrookes.
4. Land West of Bedford Midland:
The former goods shed should be saved for extra parking and second booking hall
(capacity) as new bays or through tracks will displace current parking and
require extra lands to spread out. Losing this capacity to other-than-rail
development would seem short-sighted if growth of usership from current broad
range catchment is envisaged.
5. Retail Park/Kempston Town
Station: Residents of growing populations south of Bedford River Great Ouse
need better rail-based access to Bedford Midland as driving adds 20 minutes to
journey time. We recommend the Retail Park on the Bedford-Bletchley Railway be
given a station. Studies hitherto have shown positive and expanded parking off
Southfields Road could avert any local residential concerns from the Magnolia
Close quarter.
Summary:
It is our view this would
significantly enhance reach, range and diversity utilising same tracks. Our
route avoids hills, avoids housing conflicts and in all probability would be
much easier, cheaper, retains the Northampton-Bedford integrative option and
enables through working via Bedford Midland ‘north-east’ and vice versa, whilst
trains from Oxford could bay at Bedford Midland if adequate bays are provided,
and reverse out to Cambridge and vice versa. Key detail is savvy end-to-end train
swaps by drivers and even on X5 that is always a bug bear for passengers as is
constantly having to change from a coach to a bus at Bedford for whatever
reason, resulting in a downgrade often.
For this reason, we ask that the St
John’s site development is rejected and that the route we are suggesting is
given a fair and objective evaluation contrast the northern route with the
wider gains added to the benefit/cost ratio listing and that comparison to be
placed in the public domain.
R. B. Pill 21-07-2020
