ERTA Calls for the old Bedford St John's Station Site to be used for railway purposes.

With your kind indulgence, I attach our latest brochure extolling the virtues of saving the old Bedford St John's Station Site for railway purposes. It is the last stub access route for any future Bedford urban centre to Cambridge route and if we allow it to default to housing in-fill, we block it off and render the northern route or bust. A number of engineers I've spoken to have told me they are unimpressed with the northern route for east-west rail and it is time to think again. 

The issues are complex, but suffice to say, more positively our pamphlet puts forward that the old site and indeed reclaiming down to Cardington Road perimeter fence, would enable 2 good 12 coach sidings for capacity and other interim rail purposes with good and plentiful access from both a Leicester-Bedford direction and ultimately Oxford-Bedford. Ideal for waitover, freight, washer plant or a diversity of rail uses, keeping that rail corridor access 'open'. I appreciate our politicians come under a lot of pressure and the Government seems lack-lustre on fine detail predicated on more of what it says and we wish for 'Reversing Beeching'. We need to see rail land used for rail related purposes. If we get rid of adjacent lands, expanded parking for rail users will be limited and that cascades across the urban cordon.

Meanwhile south of the river, we still call for a station at the Retail Park at Kempston, currently a 20 minute drive to Bedford Midland because of the congestion and many would be tempted to hit the A421 Bypass and drive east or west accordingly. What does it cost our council to apply for the Reopenings Fund the Government has set up and look at it. 2001 Study indicated 100 extra off peak rail users should the station be built, so 20 years later, one would expect an increase, shoring up buoyant rail usership, the life-blood prelude to justify more investment surely? It's good for the Retail Park, it is good for Kempston Town, it is good for wider south-of-river audiences and it is good for the local Bedford-Bletchley services. The owners even said they would be willing to contribute to a study, it just needs leadership, direction and determination to take it on and our Mayor Dave has experience given his forthright support for the Bedford Riverside North Development, which until lock-down was a relative success and better rail links and services, passenger and freight is just the ticket for more sustainable jobs and services giving the area a competitive edge.

ERTA supports early delivery of rail links to Heathrow and beyond

 

23 September 2020

Press Release

 

ERTA supports early delivery of rail links to Heathrow and beyond

 

ERTA is saddened by the Government’s constant deferring of the much-needed new and better radial rail links to and from Heathrow. Government should look beyond the Airport as a magnet in itself, albeit it informs a footfall and market, none-the-less the wider strategic gains should not be lost beit for Covid 19, the downturn of aviation or environmental issues; rather these rail links could help reduce emissions anyway and improve connectivity. Without them the Government is locking-in congestion and emissions on local and regional roads, to, from and around Heathrow.

 

Key elements we would like to see:

1. Southern Rail Link, link from the Guildford-Woking-Wisley*-Heathrow should go on to link with Old Oak Common and onwards still to link with the Chiltern Main Line for destinations like Oxford, Bicester, Banbury, Aylesbury and via the new East-West rail link, into Milton Keynes and the West Coast Main Line.

* From Above: Wisley RHA courts over 1 million visitors per year normally, and should have a station to give a rail alternative to driving and boost footfall on and off the rails.

2. South from Woking, ERTA has long called for route protection and studying with a view to reopen the rail link between Guildford-Cranleigh and Horsham, enabling direct rail access into Gatwick from the south via Horsham and Crawley. This is a strategic missing link and sadly under threat currently.

3. We support the direct link from Reading-Heathrow and the Windsor Link Scheme, both of which should have a large underground station at Heathrow with loops and inter-connectivity with other existing and new rail lines, sharing same platforms and facilities for the convenience of passenger usage and interchange.

 

End Press Release

 

Further comment: Mr Richard Pill, Media Spokesperson: 07541 701718/richard.erta@gmail.com

East Midlands Connect Consultation

 Loads happening and our team is being built to address the many campaigns and multiple tasks each one throws up.

This consultation needs people to wade in and lobby them to consider the things we wish for and incorporate them into their agenda. They seem dazzled by HS2 and roads?

https://www.midlandsconnect.uk/publications/integrated-rail-plan/?fbclid=IwAR1B7B1S3aurTwVSV95pKIVYOIaC8FEmKUWWRfZYh7T_90WsJPnCQcycVDw

The rail agenda we wish for is:

a. Bedford-Northampton

b. Northampton-Market Harborough

c. Great Central corridor re-railing with deviations and new pieces.

d. Leicester-Burton-on-Trent

e. Derby-Manchester via Matlock-Bakewell-Buxton/Chinley

f. March-Spalding - should have been route protected long ago, a new route is required arriving at Deeping St Nicholas maybe with sidings and capacity wait over and a new station built-in. Otherwise it is perverse, it all goes by road and then they say demand for roads is up! The stats are synthetically inflated. We need decent well maintained roads, but rebalancing also of the rail alternative for passenger and freight.

g. Woodhead for Hull-Liverpool via several routes and variations

including Sheffield and Manchester - Manchester needs more capacity, should be being planned now.

h. Stations for the Desborough area and Kibworth (serving over a 5 mile catchment each).

Finally, our conference on Zoom this Saturday (26th) still has spare places, it is not too late to join us and join in, please register with Mr Simon Barber T. 0208 940 4399, E. simon4barber@gmail.com

Please see attached. 

Please campaign to Midlands Connect and get them on board for more of what we may wish for rail-wise. Unless routes are protected, study funding forth-coming and on-going and delivery given go-ahead for spades on the ground/shovel ready in escalator and  conveyor belt terms, we fail successive generations and fail to grasp the preparation of crucial infrastructure for environmental, social and economic robustness going forwards. In short hope made real. Please help us. 

Midland Main Line electrification is fine, but existing rails are not enough for modal shift and we need an exact same level playing field approach by councils and other agencies to ensure all options are retained and progressed with delivery in mind. We don't want everything, but select and carefully thought-through projects which reduce traffic through rail alternatives. Thank you.

Tonbridge-Gatwick, a catalyst of what is required for the wider South East rail connectivity.

Re: https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/gatwick-rail-service-could-link-18954332?fbclid=IwAR2CknrzE9B_XiLOruUl1FYABk1kfcHqHL5Hsd-iaTb5EE64DTShdjTJd3E

The idea of upgrading and making more use of the Redhill-Tonbridge rail link makes a lot of sense as does a study to look at how and if a direct curve towards Gatwick could be provided?

However, more trains terminating on through platforms gives rise to capacity/pathing issues and far better for trains to run onwards to elsewhere and the Brighton arm is at capacity.

This is partly why ERTA is proposing rebuilding of the Guildford-Cranleigh-Horsham rail link which could inform a loop between Reading-Guildford-Horsham-Crawley-Three Bridges-Gatwick-Tonbridge and/or back via Redhill and the North Downs rail link which needs inclusive electrification to enable more and boost efficiency as well as giving rise for Thameslink reaches to link with Guildford and possibly Reading out of Croydon for example.

Our other proposals are:

a. support for the Arundel Curve, to enable Crawley/Horsham trains to serve Worthing, Shoreham and terminate at Brighton.

b. A new realigned Polegate-Stone Cross avoiding line enabling semi fast direct services between Brighton-Hastings and Ashford, whilst at the same time freeing up capacity/paths for more trains to inform a London-Gatwick-Eastbourne focused service, which with marketing would make more of the resort as an international destination and portal stay-cation for wider exploration of the South East with the London amenity built in. Eastbourne seems be-shadowed by Brighton magnetic appeal, whereas these better line configurations would enable both to benefit respectively. Eastbourne tracks need investment and an air of new dynamism.

c. The London - Brighton Mark 2 Project via Uckfield-South Coast Rails incorporating a re-railing of Tunbridge Wells - Eridge and maybe a relocation of the preservation operation elsewhere, like also the Lavender Line? This project would enable better links between Tonbridge and the South Coast and vice versa, with modal shift gains, cleaner air, land use savings for other purposes than endless car parking as well as footfall and spend both ways sustaining small to medium businesses and service opportunities.

d. A study looking at links with the Tonbridge-Redhill Line with a view to whether a curve connection could be provided for either/or the Uckfield Line to link directly onto the Tonbridge Line informing East Croydon-Tonbridge links?

The point is that better east-west links and common standard rail infrastructure needs to be seen as expedient. The landscape is mixed. Surrey County Council needs bringing on board for these projects, as per East and West Sussex, the latter seem content with a cycleway between Shoreham and edge of Guildford, but the compatibility seems undermined if councils fail to turn down a canal application utilising the old trackbed formation, if planners fail to relocate leisure centres and make space for a railway to get through with a station at Cranleigh and for an attitude commensurate for a cycle way and railway to coexist with a broader definition of the corridor to accommodate both respectively, bearing in mind the engineering requirements of a railway, contrast the more flexible design of a cycle way. What is clear is a cycleway and a canal will be very hard to accommodate each other. So wider councils need to get onto these others and bring them to be willing to consult with neighbouring councils and work together to get bulk environmental transport shifted by rail choices and joined up networks of rails. The long ago idea of a flyover like at Bletchley linking the Tonbridge-Redhill with Guildford-Redhill Lines would require some demolition and be a major engineering challenge, but again, the benefits of a seamless Reading-Ashford synergy for passenger and freight with the revitalisation such could make to these part-time track uses, should be aspirational food for thought surely?

ERTA is supportive of better rail links and synergies and wants to see modal shift, traffic reduction, pollution reduction and a better balance and approach to transport generally. I remind you of the Government's Rail Reopenings Fund and you should be lobbying Rt. Hon. Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Transport and others like the Chancellor of the Exchequer to extend it as a rolling programme and again balance the £27 billion new roads budget with the mere £500 million Rail Reopenings Budget - we need a level playing field and more powers and incentives/sanctions to keep options open, not scupper them rail-wise.

You may wish to attest if the Transport for the South East are aware of/pursuing these smaller, incremental pieces of rail infrastructure which combined would make a huge difference? https://transportforthesoutheast.org.uk/ Thank you.

Northampton-Market Harborough Rail Rebuild Scheme - the route must be kept clear and reopening pursued with rigor.

 The proposed scheme: https://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/councilservices/northamptonshire-highways/major-highway-projects/Pages/northampton-north-west-relief-road.aspx

Has these things against it:

1. There is no proof that it will alleviate the area of traffic nor congestion. Sure it acts as a conduit for traffic but such schemes are often found to increase traffic pull and thus ends up with more severe congestion. This especially true at junctions, which jam up causing delay to access on and off such roads. For example, whilst this article is more a broader canvas, it works back to local situations including large magnet conurbations like expanding Northampton, adjacent to M1 and principal east-west roads with no equivalent rail choices, locking in roads only inflated demand and journeys. https://www.driving.co.uk/news/britain-among-worlds-worst-traffic-jams/

2. At very least, this road must be made to bridge the former Northampton-Market Harborough rail corridor, keeping re-railing options open whether it be a Network Rail or Preservation or combinations with pedestrian and cycle provision alongside suitably fenced off. Only in the last 2 years have studies been done to examine the feasibility of reopening such a line and courted Ministerial support, but not followed up with applications to the Government's Rail Study Fund to buoy up the case as a candidate for shovel ready/spades on the ground delivery in a timely manner as befits putting Northampton on a corridor which could link Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton with Leicester and the East Midlands and vice versa. Think what that flow of footfall and spend could offer to ailing town centres, minus extra traffic and cars? We must not throw such a golden opportunity away for a road scheme of dubious credentials or even if you think it has merit, should not be allowed to scupper the rail link aspiration surely?

https://www.heatonharris.com/news/northampton-market-harborough-train-line

Please support the rail link initiative and amend or reject the road scheme to give more time for alternative options to be considered. Northampton is expanding in all directions but the closures of local lines hit the town of its size hard and despite rapid expansion in the 1970's and onwards, have not been rectified. Likewise, if we do not keep options and corridors open, we throw away recovery chances. 

Only last Saturday we appointed a Volunteer Project Officer to take re-railing of the railway to the Brackmills Industrial Estate, to enable more people to access the site by public transport and surrounds and alleviate road congestion which is adding time and cost to deliveries to and from the area. Choices are vitally needed and we appeal to you to leave a legacy that the County foresaw the issues and took steps to leave a support life-line to keep options open. The England's Economic Heartland (EEH) supports a new rail link between Banbury-Daventry-Northampton and a curve from north-west at the foot of the Northampton-Market Harborough rail link revived, could enable freight trains to serve DIRFT from a wider base relieving existing lines with more capacity for more trains to serve the Northampton area generally. If you allow such a road scheme to destroy the old formation or put pressure on its demise as a principal future rail access route, then it is a downward spiral of missed opportunities. We appeal to you to amend the road or reject it pending further incorporation of the rail aspiration into a joint transport strategy with delivery in mind please. The old route could, with sensible policy and planning be broadened out to include a preservation operation, a Network Rail through line and a green corridor cycle-footpath provision. Likewise the railway corridor could be electrified and so width and height clearances need to be taken into account. Further blockages makes costs and reopening harder and like the successful Borders Railway, rectifying takes some doing. But as the Borders rebuild shows, the benefits are robust even in a mainly rural location. In short, people will use rail where expedient, notwithstanding the current circumstances.

http://www.bordersrailway.co.uk/media/2660/borders-railway-blueprint-pdf.pdf It could be Northampton and Shire too! In such a context, amending this road scheme makes more sense.

All Aboard and welcome to join a Great Central Rail Reopening Zoom Meeting

Agenda for the Great Central Meeting hosted by ERTA for interested and supportive persons. 

Please contact Mr Simon Barber T. 0208 940 4399, E. simon4barber@gmail.com to go on the Zoom Listing prior to the event. We are incrementally progressing to making a start to get the ball rolling and every member and support and collaboration can count towards something greater than the sum of the parts.

ERTA Round Up

Despite a long summer, we have and are making progress. Membership is going up. We also have a new relaunched web address - please link to it/pass it around for others to get a window on us and our laudable endeavours:  https://ertarail.co.uk/

Please stay with us. We face multiple front-lines from our campaigns and feel the pains of aspiration turned sour whereby the mooted idealism of the modern age of cleaner air, water, land use-ecology balances and the fit of growing populations with mixed development including housing, employment and services/facilities from hospitals to care centres to swimming pools and leisure provision just is not in any kind of tandem. Masses of houses with few facilities. Development planned with multiple car dependency from day one assumed contrast to the need to nurture rail infrastructure, public transport and healthier lifestyles (walking and cycling) just not cutting the mustard in many cases. 

Grant Shapps launched the new Rail Reopenings Fund and organisations like England's Economic Heartlands and other similar organisations give themselves 2050 to get something done, gainful employment there then (!) But there's a serious need for a logistical and transport switch (modal shift) from road to rail and you can't do that without putting tracks back and building some new ones. Shovel ready projects like Bristol-Portishead have not been given the go ahead, whilst Oxford-Bedford rail link is happening, 2024 is a mooted date for trains to actually run and according to some 2030 is a cut off date for irreversible Climate Change damage with impacts on weather, food production, costs and many other news-worthy spin offs. 

In short, delivery is where speed is needed, not how fast trains go. If congestion means 20 mph is the average speed of lorries and cars for example, a train going the exact same location to location is much faster with no hindrances at say 30mph... makes 225mph for HS2 seem a tad unnecessary. Of course there's more to it, but for our money starting off with getting something small, growing it and replicating the model across the system like more recycling by rail (freight off roads) is where collaboration needs to be tangible. Trading reports and citations all laudable debate-worthy stuff, but ultimately it is delivery which makes or breaks our very sense of well-being, let alone ability to compete on a sustainable platform and conscience.

https://ertarail.co.uk/